Potash Hill Marlboro College | Spring 2020 POTASH HILL ABOUT MARLBORO COLLEGE Published twice every year, Marlboro College provides independent thinkers with exceptional Potash Hill shares highlights of what Marlboro College community opportunities to broaden their intellectual horizons, benefit from members, in both undergraduate a small and close-knit learning community, establish a strong and graduate programs, are doing, foundation for personal and career fulfillment, and make a positive creating, and thinking. The publication difference in the world. At our campus in the town of Marlboro, is named after the hill in Marlboro, Vermont, where the college was Vermont, students engage in deep exploration of their interests— founded in 1946. “Potash,” or potassium and discover new avenues for using their skills to improve their carbonate, was a locally important lives and benefit others—in an atmosphere that emphasizes industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, critical and creative thinking, independence, an egalitarian spirit, obtained by leaching wood ash and evaporating the result in large iron and community. pots. Students and faculty at Marlboro no longer make potash, but they are very industrious in their own way, as this publication amply demonstrates. Photo by Emily Weatherill ’21

EDITOR: Philip Johansson ALUMNI DIRECTOR: Maia Segura ’91 CLEAR WRITING STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS: To Burn Through Where You Are Not Yet BY SOPHIE CABOT BLACK ‘80 Emily Weatherill ’21 and Clement Goodman ’22 Those who take on risk are not those Click above the dial, the deal STAFF WRITER: Sativa Leonard ’23 Who bear it. The sign said to profit Downriver is how you will get paid, DESIGN: Falyn Arakelian Potash Hill welcomes letters to the As they do, trade around the one Later, further. Out beyond editor. Mail them to: Editor, Potash Particular. Let them credit what you hunt, Where you just see. Trust the flow Hill, Marlboro College, P.O. Box A, Let future perform. Results are for your Is what he said, sort out the secular Marlboro, VT 05344, or send email to Children anyway; returns can be long As each day reconciles you [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit for length To notice, and when wrong, will right Into a morning of leaving. Or at least going; letters that appear in Potash Hill. Unless the drawdown is steep, or of your own Coming back at dark to take off your shoes Potash Hill is available online at Doing. If only to have known then the now: And ease into that chair. With that glass. Filled Marlboro College’s The thesis did not revert, never worked; Again. Not yet paid for. All resting website: www.marlboro.edu. You did not move On an infinitesimal wire you have never seen. FRONT COVER: The Serkin Center for the Performing Arts takes on an Except to the already— Their wire. Their there. You here. Not there. air of ambiguity as reflected in the And as the prodigy breaks from the pack, campus fire pond. The future of Disrupts into the new for just one more the campus has been on the mind of many, as Marlboro College prepares to enter an alliance with Emerson This poem was previously published in The New Yorker, December 2, 2019 edition. Sophie Cabot Black visited College. See page 7. Photo by Students in the Body as Material and Metaphor class demonstrate teamwork campus on February 27 and shared her poetry at a reading in Apple Tree, part of the Marlboro College Alumni Richard Smith during their performance of “InterCorporeum,” choreographed by visiting artist Speaker Series. She has written three collections of poetry, most recently The Exchange. You can hear Sophie read Daniel Bear Davis, in December’s Dances in the Rough showcase. Students have provided unprecedented mutual support in the past year, and have responded “To Burn Through Where You Are Not Yet” at bit.ly/2RxnxJE. to the uncertain future with empathy and compassion. See some excerpts from Dances in the Rough at vimeo.com/393535186. Photo by Emily Weatherill ‘21. The above photo was taken at the November farewell ceremony for the majestic elm that stood to the right of the dining hall for all of Marlboro’s years. The tree was removed in January, and much of the lumber will be used by art students and alumni craftspeople to build on their Marlboro memories.

Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 1 | Potash Hill

UP FRONT: KEEPING IT EXPERIENTIAL “During the semester when readings and papers pile up, it’s easy to take for granted the ‘mundane’ things—a hot cup of coffee, clean dishes, good winter boots, easily moving five miles down the road—but these seemingly little things keep us alive, get us moving, and give our brains the needed time to process and rest.

“The hands-on, experiential learning of expedition trips is an essential counterpart to classroom work. I’ve had more epiphanies driving a stretch of highway in South Dakota than I ever did in the process of writing a paper for class. When these trips are in their element, whether the Rocky Mountains or the Green Mountains, they provide the perfect environment for the ‘aha’ moments and fuel for better learning.”

—Nikolas Katrick ’07, MSM ’16, Outdoor Program Director

Panoramic photo of the Outdoor Program building and surroundings by Mark Roessler ’90, part of his series of “panorambles” around Marlboro’s storied campus. Take a virtual tour (and admire our stately elm tree, now sadly missing) at panorambles.com/tours/marlboro.

Spring 2020 | 2 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 3 | Potash Hill EDITOR’S NOTE

“Scientific careers, like life itself, are usually a work in progress,” says Charles Potash Hill Curtin ’86 in his feature on new perspectives on landscape-scale ecology and conservation, on page 8 of this issue of Potash Hill. “Like a series of TABLE OF CONTENTS | SPRING 2020 experiments, one’s thinking evolves to reflect emerging realities.” There’s been a whole lot of emerging realities at this venerable institution of higher learning known, for now, as Marlboro College, and much of this issue 1 Clear Writing: To Burn Through Where You contends with the college’s work in progress. 14 Are Not Yet by Sophie Cabot Black ’80 One would be excused for being suspicious. In the last issue of Potash Hill 2 Up Front: Keeping It Experiential (Fall 2019), yours truly was singing the praises of a planned merger with University of Bridgeport, which had fallen through before the magazine even 6 Letters mailed. This time feels different. The proposed Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies has been made possible by our alliance with 7 View from the Hill: Embracing Uncertainty a trusted and well-known partner, Emerson College. Although it means the by President Kevin F. F. Quigley loss of Potash Hill, a place central to Marlboro’s history and appeal, it also means the preservation of much that the college holds dear. 8 Feature: Sustaining Wide Open Spaces by Charles Curtin ’86 This issue of Potash Hill will give you a glimpse of how working groups are charting the best path forward for faculty, students, staff, and the campus itself 14 Feature: The Powers of Sound (page 22), and how students are working to document the last semester on by Bronwen Tate campus (page 18). It shares the many visits between members of the Marlboro On & Off the Hill: Documenting Last and Emerson communities (page 20), and promotes the important work of the 18 Months on Potash Hill, Campus Visits Promote recently relaunched Alumni Association (page 24). And, of course, much more. Understanding, Working Groups Get Down to Details, Alumni Association Revival, Alumni Drop What will happen to Potash Hill, the magazine? It is our sincere hope to Some Love, A Home Days to Remember, Alumni publish one more print issue in the fall, in which we can celebrate the last Get Crafty in Japan, Campus Acknowledges graduating class and generally ponder Marlboro’s legacy going forward. Abenaki Homeland, EV Charging Comes Photo by Emily Weatherill ’21 That is why this issue is being published online, primarily, to conserve to Potash Hill, Silencing the Most Vulnerable, resources and prepare for that final issue. What will happen after that, 30 Events, Q&A with Kristin Horrigan, and more well, let’s just say it’s a work in progress! 36 Alumni News: Truth in Humor, How is your thinking evolving? What is Marlboro’s legacy? What kind a profile on Amber Schaefer ’10, and much more of an impact did the college have on your life? As always, we love to hear from our readers at [email protected]. 44 Bookshelf

—Philip Johansson, editor 45 In Memoriam

48 Magnanimity Cum Laude: Trail-Blazing Philanthropy

Spring 2020 | 4 | Potash Hill 36 n VIEW FROM THE HILL n Letters

SACRED SINGING I’m a PhD student at the University of Illinois and am working on my dissertation about Sacred Harp singing in the northeast. I found a reference to an Hilary Sloin ’85 and theater professor Geoffry Brown article in Potash Hill, Spring of 1981, by Anthony rehearse for Hilary’s play Minefield. Photo from archives Barrand and Carole Moody, called “The Making of Northern Harmony.” I was wondering if it’s possible to acquire this article either through your REMEMBERING HILARY office, the library, or elsewhere on campus. Thanks very much for any help EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY I sent a poem I wrote the day I found out you can offer. —Jonathon Smith Hilary Sloin had died (Potash Hill Fall 2019, BY KEVIN F. F. QUIGLEY page 47), but asked that it not be considered Marlboro’s archivist fellow Megan O’Loughlin was able to locate this issue of for Potash Hill because I expressed anger at her Potash Hill in the library and sent a scan of “The Making of Northern Harmony” for dying, and because I used cuss words. And to Jonathon, which you can find here: marlboro.edu/harmony. —ed. then I thought of the years she and I worked with T. Wilson in Poetry Workshop. Hil LAST POTASH HILL? Last December’s Dances in the Rough was an amazing them. Alumni and Marlboro townspeople have questions and I were so serious about writing then and, If things go well with Emerson College as planned, this Potash Hill stands showcase of student work, demonstrating a depth of about the future of the campus and Marlboro’s legacy. gratifyingly, T. took us seriously. It was the to be the penultimate issue, with one more published in Fall 2020 to curiosity and passion for learning that characterizes There will be answers to all of these, but not until best writing training I’ve ever had—sitting honor our last graduating class on campus, make some cumulative sense Marlboro College. One of the most inspiring Marlboro and Emerson sign a more binding agreement. in that sunny classroom, high up in an old of Marlboro’s legacy, and prepare readers for what might come next. performances was called “A Two-Part Experiment While I am optimistic that an agreement will be reached barn, arguing about whether one word or Readers are encouraged to contribute to this final issue, in the form of letters, in Not Knowing,” choreographed by Alta Millar ’20 soon, it is still pending at the time of this publication. another was extraneous. memories, vignettes, poems, or pictures. What was your favorite class? and performed by Alta and Charlie Hickman ’21. The devil is in the details, as always. Many people Who was your biggest crush? What was your ultimate Marlboro experience? Punctuating the dance with seemingly random who are passionate about the success of the Marlboro What did this land that we all hold dear mean to you? Please send your I think the poem would pass a workshop movements and drawing members of the audience Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies memories to [email protected]. We will publish as many criticism. I think Hil would be ok with the into their tangled web of uncertainty, Alta and Charlie are working hard on sorting out these details, and submissions as space allows, and post the remainder online. F-bombs and the anger. We were estranged posed questions that required “the practice of being I am heartened and inspired by their continued for years, but she was never far from my comfortably unsure.” Their insights were particularly progress. I am also grateful to the board of trustees for ERRATA thoughts and a couple years ago I found her poignant during this uncertain time as we work to addressing our insurmountable financial and enrollment As an alumna who graduated last May, I was able to see firsthand some forge Marlboro’s alliance with Emerson College. challenges now, while Marlboro still has the resources again. We were both working on old furniture of the work that was done with CASP and the asylum seekers (Potash Hill Fall to forge a partnership that ensures the continuation of and selling old stuff. Both single, living with There are so many reasons to be anxious during 2019, page 23). I noticed that one of the main participants in the committee, our mission and identity, while also providing remarkable our dogs and driving old pickup trucks. this momentous transition, and my heart goes out to Rosario de Swanson, a professor who has gone above and beyond in her work opportunities for our faculty and students who choose Our apples didn’t fall far. everyone on whom this uncertainty has taken a toll. for the college, was not mentioned in the article. I hope there will be some Since the announcement of the Emerson alliance in to go to the Marlboro Institute at Emerson. acknowledgement of this error and that it will be made right. —Alicia Lowden ’19 November, both communities have made great strides In the current landscape of many small New England In fact, we first met in the apple trees next in learning about each other’s strengths, finding synergies, colleges closing abruptly in the face of similar challenges, to the dining hall. We climbed the apple trees Thanks, Alicia, for keeping us honest. Rosario’s name was added to the digital and charting a new path together. Some of this work we consider ourselves lucky. But we have traded certain and talked like third graders: what do you like, version of the Fall 2019 Potash Hill. Please accept our apologies. —ed. you can read about in this issue of Potash Hill, but abruptness for uncertainty, as we have taken this period what’s cool. We never agreed on everything much of it is necessarily still a work in progress. of time to make the Emerson alliance the best it can but we related to each other a lot. She was Potash Hill regrets that we misspelled the name of departed staff member In the meantime, of course, students have questions possibly be, for all parties involved. We have chosen funny, she was sweet, she was opinionated, Karleen Crossman in her obituary. —ed. about what classes they can take, or if the faculty they the path of being “comfortably unsure” because of she wasn’t always right, she made me laugh. planned on working with will be moving to Emerson. the promise that path holds. She was an amazingly hard-working and Faculty have questions about what their curriculum will You can find the latest details of Marlboro’s alliance talented writer. I’m lucky I knew her. look like, or what physical spaces will be available to with Emerson at marlboro.edu/partnership. —Rachel Mendez ’85

Spring 2020 | 6 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 7 | Potash Hill She needs wide open spaces Room to make her big mistakes She needs new faces She knows the high stakes. —Dixie Chicks sustaining Early in my career, the Dixie Chicks song Wide Open Spaces was commonplace on the airwaves and one I WIDE OPEN SPACES frequently heard as I drove to my field sites in southern A career conservation scientist and co-editor of the recent book Complex Ecology, Arizona and New Mexico. Then as now, the song’s refrain aptly summarizes some of the core elements alumnus Charles Curtin reflects on 30 years of change in ecology and conservation. needed to effectively confront challenges such as climate BY CHARLES CURTIN ’86 change, mass extinction, and a myriad of other issues facing the planet: the need to work at large scales where the intrinsic dynamics of the system are expressed; the need for patience and humility where social and ecological processes interact in complex and unpredictable ways, where you frequently learn as much or more from failures as successes; the need to engage with a variety of collaborators to get things done in often socially and politically contentious settings. And indeed the stakes are high: what hangs in the balance is much more than local environmental concerns or professional standing, but the very fabric and integrity of our fragile planet.

Scientific careers, like life itself, are usually a work in progress. Like a series of experiments, one’s thinking evolves to reflect emerging realities. When enough scientists and other thinkers individually and collectively grapple with similar issues, there can arise a new consensus that marks a transition in society’s perspective. We appear to be on the cusp of such a transformation right now as the sorts of linear, “clockwork” views proposed by Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, and others hundreds of years ago in the Enlightenment era are breaking down in the face of an intrinsically messy reality.

Climate change and the extinction crisis show that the problems humanity now faces are not linear and predictable but complex and dynamic, with outcomes far greater than the sum of their parts. Surprise is becoming the

Left> New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where Charles Curtin is participating in an initiative to regenerate the culture, ecology, and economies of a 4-million-acre landscape. Spring 2020 | 8 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Photos courtesy of Charles Curtin Out of my interest in demonstrating that experimental the job, rather than merely applying a paradigm because ecology could incorporate complexity arose the McKinney it is what you know. Theories were no longer suppositions Flats Project, a nearly 9,000-acre experiment in southern to be defended, but ideas to be explored and thoughtfully New Mexico. This project was a microcosm of study challenged. Complexity is embraced, rather than avoided— plots spanning a million-acre conservation planning area, the intrinsic messiness of the world is designed into the and was intended to provide insight into the dynamics study, rather than designed out of it. playing out across the entire intermountain West. However, it soon became apparent that to understand In tandem with McKinney Flats, and in the years that systems at the size of even 9,000 acres would take at followed, I embarked on a wide range of social and least 12 to 16 years. This period was far too long to ecological experiments related to collaborative science acquire the requisite publications to attain tenure at and conservation. This work engaged a wide array of most universities. So a new sort of science was needed, stakeholders in large-scale problem solving with a focus one embedded in vast landscapes and that involved on involving local people and their values and insights working closely with remote rural communities. in science and policy. These efforts included fishery recovery in the western Atlantic, collaborative conservation I left academia and founded a nonprofit research institute programs in East Africa and the Middle East, and farmer that provided the institutional flexibility and ability to cooperatives in the Midwest and New England. I also produce the answers I thought society most needed. co-founded programs on collaboration, complexity, and A group discusses the potential for collaborative, large-scale conservation and science in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley. As it turned out, McKinney Flats was as much a social adaptive management at MIT and other universities. experiment as a biological one. I was simultaneously having cowboys manage a 200-head herd of cattle, These experiences were followed by a return to new norm. Events such as Hurricane Katrina and of the period was a gross simplification of reality. undertaking 8,000-acre prescribed burns, introducing on-the-ground efforts in collaborative conservation the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima highlight But this simplification led to an elegance and focus species such as prairie dogs, and working with biologists in Montana, where what I learned was sobering. the need for a different kind of science and policy, on big conceptual questions that have rarely been on a diversity of ecological sampling. Doing all this It soon became apparent the ideas gleaned from my one that addresses challenges with a new humility attempted since. while also sustaining a partnership with the rancher-led earlier efforts in large-scale science and conservation and pragmatism. My own journey of discovery were necessary, but not sufficient to keep pace with the Following Marlboro, my graduate career was also conservation organization Malpai Borderlands Group parallels this important transition in scientific thinking. proved to be both challenging and insightful. No increasing rates of environmental and societal change. marked by a search for conceptual elegance. From To mix metaphors, the best of conventional conservation The first phase of my evolving thinking on science and research on the recovery of subalpine ecosystems in longer was I applying comparatively simple, replicated experimental designs, but working amid the intrinsic was still mainly a process of rearranging deck chairs complexity began with my time at Marlboro College, Colorado to studies on the impact of climate and land-use (while Rome burns). Yes, we were restoring watersheds where my professors (especially Bob Engel) introduced change on species, my approach embraced a search for messiness of the “real world,” where social dynamics are just as important as ecological ones. and saving a few wolves or grizzly bears. However, we me to the view that quality science was both rigorous simple solutions to complex challenges. This was followed were not fundamentally addressing the most severe and elegant. Classic ecological studies, such as those by a post-doc at the University of New Mexico with Although the McKinney Flats study ended prematurely, threats such as global environmental change, or wholesale of luminary ecologist and Marlboro alumnus Robert ecologist James H. Brown, managing studies of desert due to the 2007–2008 recession and concurrent social transformations of local or indigenous cultures. This MacArthur (brother of Marlboro physics professor ecological communities (work I had read and admired upheaval along the US-Mexico border, valuable lessons was because we were not meaningfully addressing the John), transformed ecology from primarily a descriptive as an undergraduate at Marlboro). had been learned. I found that effective science and limitations undermining most science and policy. to a quantitative discipline. But equally important, the conservation are a result of social design as much as A fundamental rethink of conservation was needed. MacArthur brothers and collaborators showed experimental Brown’s work was another series of exceedingly elegant experiments that provided clarity through simplifications scientific replication—putting in place the preconditions ecology to be something of immense beauty. for success that most biological scientists and conservationists As the social philosopher Tom Atlee noted, “Things are of reality. However, during my post-doc, I also had the getting better and better and worse and worse, faster and In paraphrasing Pablo Picasso, Robert once stated, opportunity to spend time at a complex-system think rarely consider. I recognized that there needed to be a greater synthesis of social and ecological approaches. faster, simultaneously,” and current institutions are “Science is the lie that helps us see the truth,” recognizing tank, the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). My time at SFI would typically poorly situated to address this reality. Conservation that science, like art, is as much about insight as a search forever change the way I viewed science and conservation, My experience gave me a new perspective now widely actions too frequently represent halfway measures—in for objective reality. Especially in the post-war era from by recognizing that elegance did not necessarily require a accepted, but still seldom attained, where one does essence, the settling for less damaging outcomes, rather the 1950s through the early 1980s, the relatively simple focus on simplification. Instead, a fundamental challenge not think along purely disciplinary boundaries but than fundamentally better solutions. In my career, I have math available to ecologists before computational power of science and conservation was to embrace reality by views disciplines as different tools in a diverse tool kit. to admit, I have too often been complacent in accepting became widespread meant that much of the science grappling with complexity. The role of the researcher is to select the right tool for such “solutions.” There were marine policies that may

Spring 2020 | 10 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 11 | Potash Hill “For a scientist there are worse sins than being wrong; one of them is being trivial.” —Robert H. MacArthur

There are many ways we can rethink conservation and preconceptions. Lastly, these new approaches to science, but we must recognize that the status quo is conservation include viewing actions as experiments, often not sufficient, or perhaps even ethical, given the so one can truly learn from them. extent of current threats. Projects such as the Sangre de Cristo Initiative illustrate there are alternative Charles Curtin is a landscape ecologist and systems design frameworks that can make conservation and theorist and practitioner who works at the intersection environmental science more effective in their of science and policy, and is founder of BioCultural service to society and the planet. These approaches Connections in New Mexico. He is the author of bring together decades of experience searching The Science of Open Spaces: Theory and Practice for elegance and integrity, incorporating multiple for Conserving Large, Complex Systems and co-editor viewpoints, and working across disciplines and of Complex Ecology: Foundational Perspectives on ecological boundaries. They require humility to Dynamic Approaches to Ecology and Conservation. work with what Buddhist teachings call shoshin, His forthcoming book with the working title Prosilience: or a “beginner’s mind,” where you address complex The Science of Complexity and Integrity is due out challenges with eagerness, openness, and a lack of next year. A field crew collects data on McKinney Flats, New Mexico, Charles Curtin’s field site for exploring a synthesis between social and ecological approaches in the early 2000s. have reduced the decline of fisheries but didn’t address national climate policy, strongly suggest that if effective the core issue of unsustainable fishing practices, and action is to happen, it is not going to come from global ECOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL collaborative organizations that protected endangered agreements but from local engagement and action. It has species but didn’t address agricultural practices that to be built from the ground up, and right now we’re trying “Plants are often regarded as no more than resource objects— degrade watersheds and increase greenhouse gases. such an approach in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. unfeeling, passive sorts of beings,” says Hailey Mount ’19, who completed her Plan in ecology and environmental philosophy The Sangre de Cristo Initiative is seeking to regenerate Conventional collaborative approaches were essential in December. “But new science, technology, and attention the culture, ecology, and economies of a 4-million-acre in building common ground and an understanding to sustainable environmental relationships are allowing us to of how to conduct conservation at large scales. It is landscape from north-central New Mexico to south-central view the plant world with a new level of detail.” Hailey used certainly not appropriate to cast aside such testbeds Colorado. The point of this initiative is to show that a trait-based method of ecology—specifically, looking at the of innovation and problem solving, for they have made conservation is not only sustainable, but can contribute level of individual variation and scaling up and down between enormous contributions to preserving communities to the integrity of social and ecological systems. Especially other levels from there—to look at how soil acidification could and species. However, we need to learn and apply the in some of the poorest counties in the US, we need affect tree dynamics in Marlboro’s ecological reserve (Spring lessons from decades of experience that have much to to do more than protect nature. We need integrated 2018 Potash Hill, page 8). “I’m exploring how these new teach us about how to design, develop, and sustain more solutions to the coupled challenges of rising global techniques in ecology, and the philosophical idea of plants integrated efforts that consider the whole system and temperatures and the conservation of species and as subjective ‘others’ worthy of empathetic consideration, can not just fragments. In short, we need to move beyond ecosystems, while engaging disenfranchised rural come together and improve our environmental relationships, reactive to proactive approaches and policies. populations. We’re exploring using biomass energy our management practices, and the way we interact with production technologies to restore forest and watershed the world.” The disappointments of Rio, Paris, and other climate health, and fuel economic revitalization of the region accords, and the relative impermanence of global and while reducing CO2 inputs into the atmosphere.

Spring 2020 | 12 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 13 | Potash Hill A professor of creative writing and literature The Powers reflects on how sounds contribute both patterns and disorder to her poetry, and of Sound how her work as a scholar, mother, BY BRONWEN TATE and teacher informs her work as a poet.

I think poetry has always been about sound on some to poems through alliteration, rhyme, and other kinds of How many ways has being a mother shifted how I approach assumptions about teaching and about writing. It also level for me, ever since I first memorized Alfred Noyes’ patterning—while also being a sign of chaos or disorder. my work? So many ways. To describe just one, I sing keeps me curious, which I see as a necessary condition “The Highwayman” for the pleasure of being able to Puns, homonyms, and similar forms of sound play reveal to my children at bedtime almost every night, and I’ve for writing. recite it to myself when I was 8 or 9 years old. Whenever a kind of instability or anarchy of language. I’m drawn to recently been struck by the questions they ask about I write poetry, there’s some element of writing by ear, of both the patterning and the destabilizing powers of sound. songs. The current songs on repeat-request are Gillian I get frustrated sometimes because I’ve been writing poetry repeating words or phrases back to myself and sounding Welch’s “I Dream a Highway,” “The Bonnie Banks for a while now, but every time I sit down with a new my way to the next sentence or line. Sound connects to My work as a poet has developed in conversation with of Loch Lomond,” and “Where Have All the Flowers project I feel like I’m starting all over again. Shouldn’t the body, to the sense that we know things in our bodies my work as a scholar, a mother, and a teacher. These Gone?” and the kids ask things like “How can flowers I know by now what a Bronwen poem does or at least and can feel them before we fully articulate them. other forms of work often feel in competition for time learn?” or “Do ALL the soldiers go to graveyards?” or how it starts? But I’m also drawn to poetry because of with my poetry writing, but they feed it as well. As a “How can the wagon be empty if it’s full of rattling how open it is. I love how many different ways a poem My recent poems are grappling with sound and language scholar, I’ve learned how to really stay with something, bones?” Now this may just be bedtime stalling, but can make meaning. I love to be surprised in my reading, as a material, while also trying to participate in the world to reread it over and over again and look at it from it’s also a reminder that the urge to notice details and and I want to be surprised in my writing. Looking forward, of actual people and experiences. I teach creative writing different angles and within a larger context. There’s a interpret poetic texts is deep in us. I think sometimes I want to make work that holds more, that does a better across genres, so I’m constantly working with students on problem-solving or method-focused way this shows up in we get out of the habit, or encounter this kind of interpretive job bringing different aspects of experience together and memoir and fiction, as well as poetry. This means that my writing—if I’m struggling with lineation, say, I assign work as alienating and forced in the high school classroom, showing how they touch each other. I want to let more in. I’m always thinking about the different goals and trade-offs myself focused reading of poets I see doing interesting but humans are fundamentally grapplers with language that happen across genres, and it pushes me to really and intentional work with line breaks, and then I sit and meaning. I take heart from this reminder. Bronwen Tate has taught creative writing and literature consider what I want to prioritize or emphasize in my with their work, examining its breaks and swerves. at Marlboro since 2017. Her debut full-length poetry work. At the moment, I’m working on some poems As a teacher, I’ve been lucky to work at Marlboro College, collection, The Silk the Moths Ignore, National Winner that are deeply sound-driven. Mothering drains me at times, but it also immerses me where we work closely with students on Plans that almost of the 2019 Hillary Gravendyk Prize, is forthcoming in the hands-on language lab of new humans learning to always draw on methods and practices from across multiple from Inlandia Books. This essay is adapted from an Recently, I read Gregory Orr’s A Primer for Poets and communicate—their strange phrasings that show the cracks disciplines. We also all eat lunch together in the dining interview with rob mclennan, editor of above/ground Readers of Poetry with a couple of tutorial students, and in language and their joy in rhyme and word play remind hall, so any given day, I’m talking with colleagues and press, published on his website Touch the Donkey. he discusses poetry in terms of making space for disorder me that poetry is vital and centrally human at moments students about wolf dentition, forest gardening, how and chaos and then acting on it with “the ordering when I start to think of it as a weird thing off to the side writing workshops differ from painting critiques, etc. Photos by Clement Goodman ’22 powers of the imagination” and of form. I’m interested that no one cares about. This ongoing dialogue pushes me to question my own in how sound can be an ordering power—we give shape

Spring 2020 | 14 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 15 | Potash Hill I COULD NOT ASK OTHER FLOWERS BRUISED PEACHES UMBILICAL

Today multiplied. We measure days in peaches, bruises, livid, lose the keys Blue umbilical pulse to cut, my last placenta Find them days later in the dirty laundry. What is habit Stuck, the doctor scrubbed elbow-deep, that flesh A layered wealth of strata along the sloped face of the work. Ankle That it wakes me up to effort? I cook but don’t dust, read Suddenly neither of us, excess, would rot inside me. bone, wind-blown grain, suck of honeysuckle, cell of honeycomb. In bed, wash the sheets occasionally. Eat the peaches I held him, purple still and scrawny, bawling. Approach the hedgerow with reverence due a rood loft (consent, Before they mold, wear wool socks against a cold July. Hot blankets, shivering, sweat-wracked, hormone high— oh Lord, to bless). Spade in hand, cleave what knotted. I am My signature slants “O” to a recognizable angle—what is What is in the body, yours, mind, all mouth? We are of the same stripe as she who cries into the thorned canopy. I Unnoticed is unchanging; the B negative of my blood, unchecked, Our parts, not a self apart, grow new ancillaries, collaborate follow her gaze to the engraved steeple, bricked with birds’ nests. Will reject babies that could have poisoned me in another age. On blood. My son nears three now, swipes and taps Poetry by Might effort tilt the ratios of my articles, definite stamp of Glass-faced watch-hands, asks if the umbilicus plugs Talus, alveolus, speak the landscape of a body. Thoughts pile All I’ve heard and hardened indefinite in what I make. A child is Into the wall, charged up on Coca-Cola, wails, “hard peaches Bronwen Tate up, bent, twined, twisted as flowers. Variable flung from the cells, being, substance-sewn Are my favorite.” He wants what’s unripe. I slice and macerate Self. In coming hours, a turn, determined angle, harkening, With sweet and salt and mint, tired now beyond cheek’s fuzz Effortless. Biology wakes me to that cry. Subterranean And bloom. New one, I made you a room inside my mind. CIRCUMSTANCES LEGIBLE Singing through the fabric, thin-spread-thing, I am still here. Still you’ll split my skin to quit me. REPRODUCTIONS OF FRESCOS BEHIND THIS WINDOW

Travel back. Because of a misstep, I saw a crevice in a horse’s What is raw in me again, burst blister, lamb’s lettuce. knee in place of brigands. Play of light and color off their helms. THE INADEQUACY OF WORDS Fixed to hang on syllables, frivolous and drowsing. All modifiers Reading in the original French. Reading to be elsewhere. I look are contagious. Complacent. Glowing. All modifiers slip me in past it, first conception. the direction of the sea. “Memory, like a good poem, can be returned to again and again, yielding new meanings from new angles,” says I read Proust. In wide-sleeved houppelande, she incarnates. Without the residue of fixed habits, I loosen my gauge to make Brooke Evans ’19, who completed their Plan in writing in Swollen fruit of her manly form a solid allusion. Prod that sweet the absences. Lace is made of holes. Like a bassinet on a membrane edged with ribbons of watercress or cuckoo flower. December. “When we write, we hold each memory in our lower step, my hum rocks side to side. Water diminishes in the hands, turn it, see past and present overlap.” The main basin as the days grow drier. I say guard and mean keep. For each word, a word in another language means part of the component of Brooke’s Plan blends poetry and prose in same thing. When I look up “midwife” on the university website, a nonlinear, braided life-writing piece titled “As I Left It,” the only reference is to Plato. Theaetetus, he suggests, is in discomfort where prose rooted in childhood memories weaves into because he is in intellectual labour. TO HOLD WHAT’S TENDER poetic forms that seek to collect and connect fragments. I want to be a scholar. I want a new vernacular of milk. Baby bathes Their original works are supported by an essay reflecting on My lip bruised C.D. Wright’s idiosyncratic style and influence on their own Echo, echo, on my perch with my library. Well-stocked dictionary from his hard crown experimental explorations. “What drew me to experiment sends me Latin, lygeum spartum, cultivated or not present here. Lean down with form and outside of conventional forms in my poetry his palm along my cheek and prose was the inadequacy of words alone to convey repeating “gentle” what I aim to express.” hurts a little

“Reproduction of Frescos,” “I Could Not Ask Other Flowers,” and “Circumstances Legible Behind This Window,” were previously published in Touch the Donkey, #21.

Spring 2020 | 16 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 17 | Potash Hill ON & OFF THE HILLDocumenting Last Months on Potash Hill Along with the sense of loss, grief, and confusion around Marlboro’s planned alliance with Emerson College, there has been an upwelling of concern about positively supporting Marlboro’s final months. This has prompted efforts by a group of students, faculty, and staff to launch a cohesive documentary project that will provide space for the community to reflect on this pivotal moment in the college’s history. “This campus is a very special place that means so much to many people,” says Erelyn Griffin ’20, one of the students who has helped bring people together for the documentary effort. “In documenting we will not only pay homage to this place that we have called home, but provide a look into a moment of history where liberal arts colleges and opportunities for higher education are so vulnerable.” The group is investigating and acting on several media projects, including video documentary, audio documentary, writing, and photography. Sam Harrison ’20 plans to include an element of documenting Marlboro’s last semester as part of his Plan in film and video studies, and visiting faculty Brad Heck ’07 will encourage Marlboro-focused projects in his spring class titled The Art of the Mini-Documentary. Several alumni are stepping up to do their own related projects, and have been urged to participate. “It’s important to capture the reality of what it is like to be at a college campus that is closing, to hear from people who really care about where they are, to experience what people are going through,” says Brad. “It’s also a way of helping people process.” “We are a part of the folk group of Marlboro College, and so much of our folk customs, traditions, and stories Opposite> Erelyn Griffin contributes to messages painted are tied to this specific place,” says Erelyn. “This project on the pavement in front of the campus center, in response to November’s announcement of the Emerson alliance, articulating is as much in the interest of preserving our culture as it all that students love about Marlboro as well as what they stand is about anything else. We must remember the Howland to lose. Photo by Philip Johansson ghosts, the library mice, broomball!” Above> Sam Harrison documents events on campus, from the dismantling of the giant elm to outdoor classes. Bottom photo To help support or participate in this documentary effort, by Clement Goodman ’22 contact [email protected].

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Campus Visits to Emerson for a group visit on February 14, and ongoing Promote Understanding individual visits throughout the spring 2020 term, to experience the college’s community, offerings, and classes. The November announcement of the alliance between There have been several exchanges of faculty visits as Marlboro College and Emerson College has been followed well, starting with visits to Emerson in the week of by a series of visits by members of both campuses, helping December 2 and return visits to Marlboro in the week to build relationships and a common understanding of of December 16. These have been valuable opportunities Congratulations go to five students who participated the future of Marlboro. The first of these visits was on to learn more about where Marlboro faculty will fit in Je Cours Québec in October, a series of five major November 20, when five members of the Emerson into Emerson’s programs and departments, how the running events in the heart of picturesque Quebec leadership visited Marlboro to answer questions and curriculum for the new Marlboro Institute is expanding Town Meeting Moderator Emmanuel Miller ’22 welcomes City and the surrounding area. Anna Morrissey ’20 get a feel for the mood of the campus around the to embrace them, and what resources and facilities are proposed alliance. President Lee Pelton and other leadership from Emerson College. and Gina Trevethan ’22 both ran in the 5k event, Photo by Emily Weatherill ’21 available to them. while Sage Kampitsis ’20, Jenny Stofer ’20, and “Our students and you share some commonalities,” “As we enthusiastically shared ideas and goals, I wished Claire O’Pray ’20 all participated in the 10k run. said Emerson President Lee Pelton, who addressed trustee and former staff and faculty member Ted our community could see the good will and compassion The students representing Marlboro College joined Town Meeting on behalf of the visitors. “They see in Wendell, who has also been a longtime supporter with which we were greeted by students, staff, and faculty,” 8,400 other runners who followed the picture-postcard Emerson a place of magic, a place of creativity, a place of ArtsEmerson. said theater and gender studies professor Brenda Foley, course alongside trees in their fall colors and some of where there are independent-minded people, and where following her first visit to Emerson. “Working with “This was a way of introducing to Marlboro some of Quebec City’s most iconic attractions. students have agency. And my sense is that many of those faculty peers at Emerson on our alliance convinced me the richness that Emerson has to offer and getting them characteristics are common to those of you who decided that the coming together is far more than a pact ‘in n n n on the actual campus,” Ted said in an interview with to come to Marlboro.” name only.’ It promises an opportunity to carry with the Emerson student publication the Berkeley Beacon. Two Marlboro seniors presented on their Plan us intrinsic elements of a Marlboro education we hold Pelton expressed optimism that Marlboro students and “I think getting the two parties to get to know each other research in December at 118 Elliot, in Brattleboro, dear, leave behind aspects that are no longer productive, faculty and their counterparts at Emerson could work and start to understand the strengths and values of each hosted by the Windham World Affairs Council. engage with a more diverse cohort, and conceive of together to create an academic program of excellence. other is the best way to have it be smooth and fruitful Leni Charbonneau’s talk, titled “Japan and the Ainu: expansive and exciting new projects.” In addition to attending Town Meeting, the visitors for both sides—to have this new relationship prosper.” A Spectacle of Sustainability,” focused on the Japanese lunched with faculty, met with faculty committees, The visits will continue to fill in the gaps between two government’s recent policies regarding the indigenous Building on these experiences, a group of Marlboro listened to senior Plan presentations, and concluded cultures, between two campuses, and between idealistic Ainus, carried out under the rubric of sustainable students invited students from Emerson College to their visit by having tea with students to respond more hopes and concrete plans. “I feel fortunate to be making development. Adam Weinberg presented on enjoy part of Thanksgiving break on Potash Hill, specifically to their concerns. the journey with so many of my Marlboro faculty and 10 students from Emerson came to Marlboro “Compassion for the Inconsiderate: Local Politics, colleagues and students and look forward to the That visit was followed with a trip by 40 students and for two nights. They shared meals together, including Global Values,” in which he explained how resentment transformation to come,” added Brenda. and vindictiveness, not disagreement, must be dealt faculty to Emerson’s Boston campus on November 24, Thanksgiving dinner, and explored and connected with with in order to stop cycles of retribution, using to get a tour of campus facilities, meet some students, the particular sense of place that is uniquely Marlboro. Frybread Friends Marlboro College’s Community Court as a case study. talk about curriculum, and see an ArtsEmerson production Marlboro senior Adam Weinberg, who orchestrated of An Iliad. This visit was facilitated by Marlboro life n n n the Thanksgiving visit, felt the brief trip brought some profound moments for shared reflection—from face In December, first-year student Darien Young Man to face engagement, to appreciation for Marlboro’s Who Is Afraid of His Horses presented a workshop spirit of trust and open access to facilities, to theoretical titled Lakota Ways of Knowing with her mother, questions of “Why liberal arts?” and “What does it mean Davidica Little Spotted Horse, an activist and cultural to explore across fundamental questions?” The morning advisor on Pine Ridge Reservation. The workshop before returning to Boston, the students expressed great supported the theme of this year’s First Year Seminars, thanks for Marlboro’s sincere hospitality along with a which studied several different approaches to “ways heartfelt promise to hang out again, soon. of knowing.” “Focus has been on how knowledge is Emerson staff in admissions, student success, and other created through community, as well as what knowledge departments visited campus in January to meet with To honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October, students Karla has been buried and needs to be excavated,” said Julia Ramos ’20 and Nicktae Marroquin-Haslett ’20 learn to make Marlboro students and discuss their potential transition frybread from scratch using the family recipe of Lakota student Catherine O’Callahan, assistant dean of academic to Emerson’s community. Students were also welcomed Darien Young Man Who Is Afraid of His Horses ’22. advising and support, who helped organize the Gwen Peavey Hunter ’22 and Linnae D’Auria ’23 explore the workshop. “This was a rare opportunity to learn urban campus of Emerson College in November. Photo by about a profound culture and its history.” Emily Weatherill ’21 Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 21 | Potash Hill n ON & OFF THE HILL n

Working Groups incorporates significant aspects of Marlboro’s curriculum, Preparing for Winter Get Down to Details including an emphasis on writing and individualized study that will draw upon Marlboro’s tutorial model. Following quickly on the announcement of Marlboro’s “It has been heartening to see how Emerson faculty alliance with Emerson College, working groups were eagerly welcome the expertise of Marlboro faculty in formed to consider options and advocate solutions designing and implementing a new four-year degree for key constituencies and interests, including students, program that includes individualized study,” says Richard. faculty, staff, and the future of the campus. Most “Marlboro faculty have been driving the conversation working groups took advantage of committees already on the curriculum, while learning from their counterparts engaged in advocating for these groups, and included about Emerson students and the spaces they will be trustees, faculty, staff, students, and, in the case of the working in.” The working group presented a proposal to campus working group, alumni. Emerson in February, which then needs to work its way Felix Bieneman ’20 and other community members relax on The student working group has the goal of charting the library hill before community photo last fall. Students have through Emerson’s governance structure for final approval. smoothest possible transition for students to Emerson received extensive support in navigating their transition. Photo by Emily Weatherill ’21 The working group on staff has the task of stewarding Pranit Chand ’23 and Malaya Wright ’23 prepare to spread or another institution of their choice, and of aligning the staff through the transition, and supporting staff compost on the community garden, before planting a winter student data with Emerson’s systems. The group is cover crop, during Work Day in October. The working group has helped orchestrate visits between well-being during what is admittedly a difficult time. made up of the Dean’s Advisory Committee as well Marlboro students and Emerson staff and students This group is made up of the Committee on Staff and as Dean of Students Patrick Connelly, Dean of group is to develop a process for gathering community (see page 20), and provided information about housing the Benefits Committee, and also includes COO Becky Admissions Fumio Sugihara, trustee and parent Susan input and proposals for the future use of the Marlboro and financial aid to students and families transitioning Catarelli and trustee and alumni parent Kirsten Malone. Wefald, Director of Financial Aid Kristin Hielmenski, College campus.” to Emerson. In January the college announced that it Registrar Cathy Fuller, IT Director Michael Riley ’09, Based on the advocacy of this group, in December the would cover the difference in housing costs for students and religion professor Amer Latif. board of trustees unanimously approved a severance “It sounds really simple, but as you can imagine, all the going on to Emerson, removing a huge barrier for many policy for staff that was considered generous by almost different factors that are involved in what happens on “We arranged four listening sessions with students in students. The working group has also supported the any measure. The group has also been actively finding campus make it very complex,” says Nikolas Katrick ’07, November and December, to allow students to voice negotiation of transfer options with four other insti- ways to support staff in terms of placement in other MSM’16, Outdoor Program director and one of the staff their opinion regarding the proposed alliance and answer tutions—College of the Atlantic, Bennington College, jobs after the Marlboro campus closes. representatives. “We’re trying to find great proposals that any questions,” said Patrick, who held the sessions. Castleton University, and Saint Michael’s College— can utilize this campus and also possibly mesh together “We are thrilled with the unstinting severance policy “They were well received, and helped lessen student waiving application fees and other transfer requirements with other proposals. Anybody can submit proposals, adopted by the trustees, and it was only made possible anxiety about the alliance.” Student Life has increased and offering comparable financial aid. but the working group isn’t going to workshop someone’s social programming and events on campus in order to by the vigilance of this group,” says Becky. “We realize “We understand students have various preferences and idea and make it viable. We don’t have the capacity to engage students in a healthy and productive way, and that, of all constituents, the staff is most affected by this needs in meeting their academic goals, and that for do that.” added additional counselors to the Total Health Center alliance and want them to know that we are doing all some students transferring to an institution other than to support students feeling challenged by their next steps. we can to soften the blow.” Specifically, the working group has invited proposals Emerson may be their best path forward,” said Fumio. for ownership and use of the Marlboro campus that will “Admissions will support any student interested in Perhaps the group that has attracted the most attention provide a significant benefit to the Marlboro community and transferring to an institution other than the Marlboro and interest of other constituencies, including alumni result in a payment consistent with the campus fair market Institute at Emerson.” The college has agreed to pay and Marlboro townspeople, is the campus working value. Any proposal must also be consistent with the terms application fees for students transferring to other, group. The group is chaired by two alumni, Sara Coffey of the Marlboro Music Festival lease and any amendments. non-partnered colleges. ’10 and Dean Nicyper ’76, and includes faculty, staff, and students as well as Alumni Council member Randy The plan is to present the most viable proposals for review The working group on faculty includes members of the George ’93, Marlboro Town Selectman Jesse Kreitzer, and approval by the Marlboro board of trustees, or by Committee on Faculty, Curriculum Committee, and and trustees Dick Saudek and Phil Steckler. Emerson if they are presented after the merger. faculty and students from the Strategic Options Task Force, as well as Provost and Dean of Faculty Richard In an email to members of the working group, Sara “We have heard of widespread interest from various Glejzer and trustee Donna Heiland. This group has the Coffey, a Vermont state representative who served on groups who are interested in finding some way to task of clarifying curricular requirements for students the board of trustees for several years, said “Each of us continue to have a managed trail network and preserve and developing an advising program for transition to has a deep connection to the college, and we know many the Marlboro College Ecological Reserve,” says Sara. Theater professor Brenda Foley and writing and literature of us are feeling a great loss, so this is a challenging professor Bronwen Tate share a moment during a trustee tea Emerson. Working with their counterparts at Emerson, “These will be considerations as we move forward.” in November, soon after the Emerson alliance was announced. they have been building a four-year program that task, but a very important one. The aim of this working Each working group member has been collecting Photo by Clement Goodman ’22

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proposals from their respective constituents, and Alumni Drop Some Love coordinating with state officials and counterparts at Emerson as necessary. In November and December, just when it was needed most, the Marlboro College Alumni Association For more information about submitting a proposal, visit announced a Drop Some Love on Campus campaign, marlboro.edu/CWG. Proposals will be reviewed on a inspiring dozens of alumni to share their well-wishes rolling basis and will be held in the strictest confidence. and Marlboro stories with students, faculty, and staff. Postcards, handmade note cards, and photocopied Alumni Association Revival photographs appeared on campus and were distributed by student collaborator Felix Bieneman ’21 and friends. In September, seniors Chris Tripp and Nick Creel gave After years of absence, the Marlboro College Alumni Here is a small sampling of the bounteous love and a presentation to the community about their summer Association was revived last fall with the full support of deep Marlboro history. internships under the National Science Foundation’s the college, thanks to renewed passion among Marlboro’s Daniel Doolittle ’95, a member of the interim alumni council, Research Experience for Undergraduates program. alumni community and a core of committed alumni who discusses Marlboro’s legacy and what’s for dessert with Hillary took on the hard work of grassroots organizing. Given Twinning, director of Foundation Relations and Stewardship Chris (pictured above) described his research on at Home Days in September. “linear independence of algebraic curvature tensors in the possible transfer of Marlboro’s faculty, students, and the higher-signature setting,” a project at California State pedagogy to the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and “The Alumni Association has been amazing, really helpful University at San Bernardino, and how it ties in with his Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, this alumni in keeping the conversation civil and moving it in a positive Plan in mathematics. Nick, who is completing a Plan revival came not a moment too soon. direction during this difficult period of uncertainty,” says in computer science, writing, and classics, discussed his “During this crucial time for the college, we recognize Maia Segura ’91, director of alumni engagement. “This work at the University of Rochester, conducting research the importance of coming together,” says an October alumni organization has demonstrated that it wants to in the emerging field of computer audition—designing statement from members of the interim council, which be an active partner, and will be a key part of Marlboro’s systems that can analyze and understand sounds. now includes Heather Bryce ’04, John Coakley ’02, legacy, whatever happens.” n n n Daniel Doolittle ’95, Randy George ’93, Cate Marvin “It’s an incredibly interesting time,” says Daniel. “At DuPont ’93, and Jessica Taraski ’91. The group first we were just launching the foundation to engage Following a lapse of a couple years, the Committee met with 27 alumni on campus for Home Days in alumni, now we are retooling to serve changing alumni on Staff accepted nominations in November for three September, and has heard from hundreds more since needs. We have to organize toward a completely different Distinguished Service Awards, which recognize staff then through their website and social media presence. reality.” The Alumni Association helped make the Drop for their commitment to the community and to the Some Love on Campus campaign (right) a success, for Marlboro College mission. The winners, announced “We consider ourselves an interdependent association,” example, and spread the word on the open session at in January, were Margaret Hunt, Tanner Jones, and says Daniel. “We are independent of the college, but December’s trustee meeting, providing alumni and other K.P. Peterson, who were each awarded a $250 prize. collaborate with the administration and trustees to share constituents access to the trustees. “One of our most Margaret, the longtime faculty administrative assistant, the voice of their largest constituency.” Marlboro has important purposes is to serve as some sort of memory was nominated based on her ability to make things about 5,000 alumni, and nearly 600 had opted in as archive, or memory vessel, of the Marlboro experience.” happen on short notice, from providing food for faculty members of the association as of January—more than gatherings to shopping for gifts for children at the 10 percent in four months—ranging in class year from “The association gives alumni a space, which has long college holiday party. “Even when things may be 1959 to 2019. been absent, to process the potential closure of the frustrating, she always has a smile on her face,” her The interim council plans to have open, democratic college or work for different possible futures,” says John nomination said. “Who cannot help but love her?” elections for council positions in 2020, and to work in Coakley ’02, another interim council member. “No Tanner, the director of residence life, was recognized concert with the college to support alumni as well as matter what happens to the Marlboro name, or the for working tirelessly to make sure students are safe archive their rich Marlboro memories. In the meantime, campus on Potash Hill, the Alumni Association will be and taken care of, and for treating everyone with respect. the council has made great strides in forming committees there to provide that home. Marlboro’s alumni will not His nomination said, “He literally does everything and connecting with alumni, the college administration, disappear, and their memories will only become more imaginable for this college. I truly believe this place campus community, and trustees—one member, Randy important in the future.” would not be functioning without him.” Last but not George, is on the Campus Working Group (see page 22), least, longtime master electrician K.P. was nominated and a November survey by the council highlighted Learn more, sign up for dispatches, or join at because, “Not only does she basically run this place, alumni priorities. marlborocollegealumniassociation.com. but she is an absolute kickass, badass person. K.P. is part of the heart and soul of Marlboro, and literally keeps the lights on here.” Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 25 | Potash Hill n ON & OFF THE HILL n

A Home Days to Remember Alumni Get Crafty in Japan says Seth. “We have all been asking ourselves what parts of Marlboro will be able to endure the merger process. The Marlboro College campus was inundated with A small group of alumni was preparing to embark on I think this is one thing that could flourish beyond next alumni and good vibes for Home Days 2019, September a two-week trip to Japan in May, led by Asian studies year, and I hope it can be reproduced by other people 27 through 29, an opportunity to remember, reflect, and history professor Seth Harter, before their plans with other themes in other parts of the world.” and support the college. Eager alumni came from as were foiled by the coronavirus outbreak in Asia. Now they are setting their sights on running the trip, titled far away as Texas and California, and spanned over Campus Acknowledges 50 graduation years, from 1968 to 2019. The Enigmatic Beauty of Japanese Craft, in 2021. “Ever since the first round of Freeman Foundation– Abenaki Homeland “It was incredible to see campus jam-packed with alumni,” funded trips to Asia, I have been hearing from alumni says Maia Segura ’91, director of alumni engagement. wishing they could take part in such college-sponsored In the week leading up to October 14, the first The event raised over $6,000 for Marlboro, and provided adventures,” says Seth. “Other colleges have been official Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Vermont, campus a full measure of solidarity for this key constituency. doing this for decades, but we will do it in a uniquely community members were encouraged by the Diversity “It was a ‘best of Marlboro’ day, and the love and Marlboro way: relatively low budget, very small scale, and Inclusion Task Force to examine their own role in support for our community has been overwhelming.” personal encounters with brilliant, dedicated people,” dismantling colonialism. To start with, they were asked says Seth. to make a general practice of acknowledging the Sokoki Highlights included a packed house for the Alumni (Western Abenaki) people in whose homeland Marlboro Dance Showcase in Whittemore Theater, featuring While traveling through the heart of central Japan, College stands. the work of nine alumni dancers at the height of their par-ticipants will explore the question: how can game, and standing room only in the dining hall for contempo-rary crafts navigate between the realms “Land acknowledgments are often given at the beginning politics professor Meg Mott’s lecture on the First of industry and fine art? They will encounter 1,300- of public events, or in my case at the beginning of my Amendment. A “Kevin Unplugged” session offered year-old wooden temples, austere Zen rock gardens, alumni the opportunity to hear directly from the college traditional ceramics, and flamboyant textiles, exploring president about the status of merger negotiations, and from the cosmopoli-tan hubs of Kyoto and Tokyo to Brightening Up to express their ideas and support. At the festive Saturday the grass-thatched huts of mountain villages. The night dinner, Allison Turner MS’99 received the 2019 itinerary is inspired by Seth’s 2017 trip to Japan with Roots Award recognizing her outstanding service to Salvatore Annunziato ’18 (see Potash Hill Fall 2018), the Marlboro College community. and his more recent sabbatical there in spring 2018. “This trip will be an opportunity to build community, “I was very moved by the programming and energy at a time when the community is feeling a bit besieged,” on the Hill,” says alumna and trustee Heatherjean MacNeil ’02. “It was a stark reminder of why Marlboro is so deeply important to me, and of its ability to cultivate such an amazing community that is driven by talented and caring individuals.”

Find more photos on our flickr page: bit.ly/2PMfJ5C. See a sampling from the Alumni Dance Showcase on Vimeo: vimeo.com/368293135.

Top to bottom> Sean Cole ’93 and Maia Segura ’91, director of alumni engagement, share the love during Home Days. Ryan Stratton ’11, Joan Coles ’13, Nicole Hammond ’11, and Megan Reed ’12 trip down memory lane. Shura Baryshnikov ’03 and her daughter Adah Bryan perform during the alumni dance showcase kicking off the weekend. Menefese Kudumu-Clavell ’20 and Angie Pham ’23 explore The gatehouse to the Honen, a small temple just off the the possibilities of tie-dyed t-shirts on a gloomy September “Philosopher’s Path” in northeastern Kyoto, one of the many afternoon, one of several daytime activities designed by the cultural sites to be enjoyed by alumni joining Seth Harter in student life team. Japan in May. Photo by Seth Harter

Spring 2020 | 26 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 27 | Potash Hill n PERSPECTIVE n

EV Charging Comes SILENCING THE MOST VULNERABLE to Potash Hill BY NICK CREEL

In September, Marlboro College installed an electric In June 2018, five journalists working at the Capital in Annapolis, Maryland, vehicle (EV) charging station in the admissions parking were violently gunned down, and two others were injured. Only 48 hours lot, a boon to students, faculty, staff, and visitors with before, far-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos remarked to reporters that he electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. This forward-thinking “[couldn’t] wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on addition to campus is thanks to a Vermont State grant, as well as funds from an anonymous private donor sight,” and US President Donald Trump has repeatedly labeled the free press that were dedicated to environmental stewardship as “the enemy of the people.” While the gunman’s motives have been deemed and sustainability. more personal than political, any observer could connect the dots—the far right has been spouting anti-journalist rhetoric for decades. “Environmental sustainability is something Marlboro College has taken very seriously, from making dorms When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, one of the first actions the energy efficient to composting our food waste,” says government took was to gain control over all media available to Germans. chemistry professor Todd Smith, who served in the role The party flooded their own newspapers and radio stations with anti-Communist of sustainability project manager last academic year. rhetoric, then framed dissident journalists as traitorous Communists. With the A basket woven and decorated by Judy Dow MA ’19 “The EV charging station is a very visible way of staking (see Potash Hill Spring 2019) suggests the interweaving general population filled with fear, it was simple for the government to imprison of culture and place recognized by land acknowledgements. this claim, and encouraging the use of electric vehicles. Transportation is the single biggest contributor to dissidents, destroy the offices of anti-Nazi newspapers, and, as the regime continued courses,” says anthropology professor Nelli Sargsyan. greenhouse gases in Vermont, so this is one small to gain power, kill any journalists who spoke against the regime. “Their intention is to bring into our collective awareness step toward reducing that component of our In modern America, the government doesn’t have to lift a finger against the Indigenous people who have been living here and ecological footprint.” the histories of various kinds that we, as settlers, have journalists. Anti-journalism rhetoric shared by Trump, Yiannopoulos, and inherited as a way of grounding.” Marlboro College was one of nine locations in Vermont countless other far-right figureheads is striking fear and hatred into the hearts that received awards from a $400,000 Electric Vehicle of sympathetic Americans across the country. Firearms flow freely, without Land acknowledgement was one of several ways that the Supply Equipment (EVSE) Grant Program last year. restriction, and if enough angry Americans with guns believe that the free task force called on the Marlboro College community to The grant application was an example of the college’s press is out to destroy America, who’s to say that they won’t take action? observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Community members shared governance in action, with Todd working with were also urged to do their own research to find out Environmental Quality Committee members Amber Why would the far right be interested in suppressing journalism? Because more about the Sokoki people and Abenaki people in Hunt and Matt Ollis as well as Hillary Twining, director without journalism, there is no one to reveal the atrocities committed against general, their history, and what some of them are up of corporate and foundation relations. The new EV people of color, women, queer people, trans people, disabled people, or political to now. Further, they were encouraged to explore their charging station will be part of a statewide network dissidents. Without journalism, there is no one to hold fascists accountable own relationships to this territory, and how they came of publicly available charging stations that drivers can to the rest of the world in hopes of stopping the continued destruction of to be here. locate through an app. human rights, not only in the US, but around the world. The far right wants its cultural and economic hegemony to continue, and removing journalists “Our acknowledgement needs to come with a commitment, from the picture only makes that goal easier to obtain. and not be something we do because it is trendy or to check a box of things progressive institutions do,” says Nelli. At Allowing fear to control our lives is not the solution that will bring fascism to Town Meeting she shared some of the recent history of this its knees. We must support one another throughout the struggle and continue area and the impacts of colonialism, including the Vermont to fight back against those who would like to keep us silent, both to ensure Eugenics Survey and systematic sterilization, and offered a safe future and to commemorate the fighters we’ve lost along the way. resources to learn more. “We each need to ask ourselves, ‘What intentions do I have to disrupt and dismantle Nick is a senior at Marlboro, completing a Plan of Concentration in computer colonialism beyond this land acknowledgement?’” science and writing, with a focus on interactive narratives. This editorial is excerpted and adapted from an essay originally posted on Cripple Magazine.

Biology professor Jenny Ramstetter charges up at the new Artwork by Cecil Siebold ’20 EV charging station on campus.

Spring 2020 | 28 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 29 | Potash Hill 3 n ON & OFF THE HILL n EVENTS 1 In September, director, writer, and producer Faraz Arif Ansari presented a screening of Sisak, India’s first silent LGBTQ love story, followed by discussion. 2 Sarah May Schultz ’23, Estelle Gillman ’22, and visiting student Finn Anderson participated in a mummer’s play when a local Morris and sword dance troupe appeared on campus in October. 3 John Marinelli ’19, Emily Armstrong ’22, and Sativa Leonard ’23 wax dramatic in John’s production of Hamlet, part of his Plan in theater and Asian studies. 4 Sonic explorers Ensemble Pamplemousse make music from electrified windchimes during their September concert in Ragle Hall. 5 Audience members participate in 1 “A Two-Part Experiment in Not Knowing,” choreographed by Alta Millar ’20, part of the December Dances in the Rough showcase. 6 In November, the Music for a Sunday Afternoon series featured local singer and songwriter Ruth Garbus, who was joined by singer and saxophone player Kal Traver. 7 In October, coffee entrepreneur Dagmawi Iyasu ’98 was on campus to make a presentation titled “Ethiopians: The Coffee People.” 2

5

6 7

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FACULTY FOCUS on FACULTY Political Possibilities through Native, Stranger, and Home: Collaborations and Practices of From the Lure of the Local to a Q&A Solidarity” with two of her Plan Progressive Sense of Place.” He is In September and October, visual In October, before news about the alliance students, Alta Millar ’20 and Leni on partial leave this year, working with Emerson had surfaced, Sativa Leonard ’23 arts faculty member AMY BEECHER Charbonneau ’19. The session was as director of studies at the Barre sat down with dance professor Kristin Horrigan presented a show of her work, titled part of the Engaging Anthropology Center for Buddhist Studies. William to talk about chemistry, contact improvisation, Container Store Cantastoria, at New Conference at the University of is currently co-editing, with Sara and heteronormativity. You can read the whole York City’s Hesse Flatow. In her Massachusetts Amherst, where McClintock and Pierre-Julien Harter, interview at potash.marlboro.edu/horrigan. exhibit, “printed-out paintings” they each presented on their work. the Routledge Handbook of Indian SATIVA: What has been the most rewarding were explored through cantastoria, In November Nelli participated Buddhist Philosophy, with a personal part of your work here at Marlboro? an ancient and still-practiced method in a Ms. magazine workshop for contribution titled, “Ambedkar: of performing paintings through KRISTIN: Definitely the work with the feminist scholars at the National Politics, Justice, and Buddhist students. The deep relationships you form song, sung by opera singer Melanie Women’s Studies Association Thought.” In January, he gave and how intimately you get to support someone Long. Amy’s libretto borrows lan- Annual Conference, in San a keynote address at the Swiss in their growth—that’s very rewarding. There’s guage from Hans Hofmann’s Search Francisco, the aim of which Biennial on Science, Technics, also the part where the students stretch us as For the Real mixed with assembly was to help feminist scholars and Aesthetics in Luzerne. faculty in a million directions. They cause us instructions for Container Store translate their research for popular to study things, think about things, talk about In October, Brattleboro Community shelving units. “Despite their disparate press. Her poem “Academia-Dot-Edu things, and do things that we never would have Television announced the winners thought to otherwise. That keeps the job from contexts, all of these texts champion Sends me Gifts, I mean, Notifications!” of its producer awards for 2019, ever getting boring. the organization of space as a pathway will be published in Feminist including retiring politics professor for a better understanding of the Anthropology, the journal of the S: What do you like most about teaching here? MEG MOTT (Potash Hill Fall 2019, self and its capacity to experience Association for Feminist Anthropology. page 27) who was awarded “Best K: One of the things I love about teaching emotion and empathy,” says Amy. Philosophy professor Series.” Meg was recognized for her here is that students are following their passions, Learn more at amybeecher.studio/ WILLIAM interests, and curiosities. Which means, most of gave a number of talks two discussion series, Debating Our Container-Store-Cantastoria. EDELGLASS the time when you have a student in class, they’re in the fall, including an evening Rights and Good Clash: The Art of in your class because they want to be in your In October, anthropology professor lecture at the Vermont Humanities Productive Disagreement, where she class, and that’s really beautiful. NELLI SARGSYAN organized a Council Annual Conference in leads popular discussions with active S: What is the most challenging part? session called “Pursuing Collective Burlington, called “Rethinking participation by audience members K: Oh, workload. You know, in this community, to identify shared values and encourage we’re all here pretty much based on love, right? healthy debate. In February, Meg led You get involved in the community, you care so a lively interactive dialogue on the much for your students, so you go the extra mile. 19th Amendment at the Vermont Nobody tells you to not do more. You have to State House, accompanied by place your own limits. composer and Wesleyan University S: Any new projects you’re excited about? scholar Neely Bruce, who led legislators K: I just launched a new website. That was my and locals in singing his original summer project. I haven’t had a website for my arrangements of the Bill of Rights. professional dance work since I closed my dance In December, visiting faculty company, Dance Generators, five years ago. It was time to launch my own site, reflecting member CASEY FORD presented the different branches of my work. a faculty forum in Apple Tree titled “Constitutive Exclusions: A Visit Kristin’s site at kristinhorrigan.com. “There is a relationship between our perception and our knowledge, and both seem to be at odds with each other sometimes. And I think change is very much one of those Genealogy of Barred Life,” exploring times,” said religion professor Amer Latif at Convocation 2019. Amer addressed incoming who or what is excluded for us to be students on the subject of supporting each other in a time of change in a talk titled “Care, Curiosity, and the Unknown.” Learn more at youtu.be/1DfRlLqBJcY. who we are. “The question is at once Photo by Jen Morris Spring 2020 | 32 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 33 | Potash Hill n ON & OFF THE HILL n

Creative writing and literature professor Bronwen Tate and chemistry professor Todd Smith joined other faculty members and students in Brattleboro for a Climate Strike in September.

Politics professor Ian McManus, accompanied by teammate Aaron Pilarcik ’20 and Aeddon Cayea ’20, debates the structural inequalities In addition to his new book, of croquet during a tournament in September. Ian and Aaron’s team won the tournament, gaining the coveted golden mallet. Mni Wiconi, photography professor JOHN WILLIS also published an biological, affective, cultural, professor WILLIAM EDELGLASS. in Seattle. In March, she updated and expanded edition and political,” says Casey. She also served as a visiting presented a paper and of his 2010 book Views from the “Running through each domain professor at Bennington College co-organized a panel titled Reservation (George F. Thompson is a philosophical concern: to be for the fall, teaching a course “Fictions of the Neoliberal City” Publishing) in September, based on In November, photography professor John Willis published his book Mni Wiconi: Water Is Life something involves an essential his more than 25 years of visiting (George F. Thompson Publishing), based on his experiences with the titled Literature as Resistance: at the American Comparative Water Protectors at Standing Rock. John’s powerful photographs are complemented relation to otherness which is not The Works of Rosario Castellanos. Literature Association’s Annual Pine Ridge Reservation. Along with by many Lakota voices and those of other allies through interviews, poetry, artwork, simply co-present but exclusionary.” his insightful and accomplished music, and historical ephemera. Essays by Terry Tempest Williams and Shaunna Given her record of publications Meeting in Chicago, and Oteka McCovey provide context and insights into age-old problems facing native people. Casey’s research project examines on Latin American literature, also presented on the panel images, John has enlisted other the specific role that “exclusion” voices to offer a more complete Rosario was invited to do book “Environmental Trauma and treatment and sexual harassment, Willow O’Feral ’07, making this has played in the way we have, story, from powerful poems by reviews for Hispania, the official Postcolonial Writing” at the systemic misogyny and sexism, year’s festival circuit. The film, in the West, conceived of the Lakota elders and high school journal of the American Association Northeast Modern Language and assault and rape, was named which documents a grassroots founding and sustaining of students to a story of growing of Teachers of Spanish and Association’s Annual Convention by the Boston Globe as one of the movement to end sexual violence political community. up on the reservation by Emil Portuguese, the first of which in Boston. Rituparna’s essay ten best of 2019. Also, Routledge against indigenous women and Her Many Horses, a curator Spanish language and literature was due to come out in December. “Precarious Duniyas: Post-Human Publishing has selected Brenda’s shares the stories of survivors at the National Museum of the professor ROSARIO DE SWANSON In January, literature and writing Subjectivity and Alterglobal book A Legacy of Violence: Women, fighting for positive change, was American Indian. Mental Illness, and Performance to was invited to participate in the professor RITUPARNA MITRA Politics in The Ministry of Utmost invited to premiere at Big Sky Film Brattleboro Literary Festival in presented papers in two panels, Happiness” will be published Theater professor BRENDA be one of their open access texts. Festival in Missoula, Montana, in October, where she appeared on titled “The Other South Asia” in a Postcolonial Studies special FOLEY collaborated this past year February. It was also slated for a a panel discussion about literature and “Representational Challenges issue on “Alterglobal Politics: on The Audacity: Women Speak, a Keep an eye peeled for Sisters Rising California premiere at California’s and race with award-winning in Postcolonial Urban Studies,” Postcolonial Theory in the play produced by Sleeping Weazel (nee Arming Sisters, Potash Hill American Indian & Indigenous writers Michael Datcher and Jess at the Modern Language Era of the Anthropocene and theater company. The play, which Spring 2015), the film by visiting Film Festival, and there will be Row, moderated by philosophy Association’s annual meeting the Nonhuman.” highlights real stories of women’s professor of film and video studies more coming. Learn more at experiences with gender-biased BRAD HECK ’04 and partner SistersRisingMovie.com.

Spring 2020 | 34 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 35 | Potash Hill ALUMNI Truth in Humor It was the height of the economic recession when Amber every aspect of the production—the music score, Schaefer graduated from Marlboro, with no savings and the color correction, the lighting—just a little bit, NEWS no safety net. After a brief stint working as a counselor but my eye is allowed to wander.” Amber Schaefer ’10 studied with women transitioning out of prison in New York political theory at Marlboro, but City—she wrote her Plan about felony disenfranchisement, Amber credits Marlboro with teaching her how to be soon leveraged her communication something she still feels passionate about—she found a better person and how to communicate, essentially skills into a career in comedy video— her calling in filmmaking, and particularly comedy. She her entire job as a director: listening to others, sharing mostly directing, but writing and acting as well. “I like that I get to started taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade, a New her vision, convincing people of things, problem solving. fall in love with every aspect of the York–based improvisational theater and training center, She also found being part of committees and taking production,” she says. and got an internship at a production company. part in Town Meeting enormously empowering, by creating a bond of respect between teachers and students. “I was only scheduled for one or two days a week, “I firmly believe that when students are treated like but I just showed up every day, even on weekends, adults they are much more likely to act like them, and quickly made myself irreplaceable,” says Amber. and democracy is cool.” “They hired me after two weeks and I basically didn’t leave that office for three years. That was my film She says her work with politics professor Meg Mott school. Now I direct commercials for my main bread taught her that everything we do is political and has and butter, but am gleefully moving into the narrative political consequences. “This has made me very mindful space.” For example, Amber’s short film It’s Been of the work I put out into the world, and I’m grateful Too Long was chosen as a Vimeo Staff Pick and was for it.” nominated for Best of the Year. You can see some of Amber’s work at ambermakes.tv. Amber is typically working on three or more projects at a time, from commercials for Geico, Dos Equis, Burrow, and Casper, to personal projects like her “super weird” Found Auditions Project, where she and a colleague create real, authentic, completely fabricated audition tapes. She recently worked on several short videos in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, which she calls “very, very silly videos parodying perfume ads and those ridiculous 1-900 ads from the ’80s and ’90s, but the messaging is sincere. It feels good to work on something I believe in.” Learn more at bit.ly/2OVJUrt.

“I love what I do and I love being busy,” says Amber, who is drawn to every aspect of video production. “I’m kind of a nightmare generalist with a bad case of ADD. For directing that’s a boon, because it’s Above> Amber and crew members review takes during filming for important that I know a little bit about everything a Casper mattress commercial titled “The Sandman has a new gig.” but still have the ability to zoom out and not get Opposite> Photo by Meredith Jenks lost in the weeds. I like that I get to fall in love with

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Class notes are listed by year and include both graduates and nongraduates; the latter are listed under the class with which they are associated.

“A 210-year-young stone farmhouse on us to be housemates. Sam writes ’69 in southern Pennsylvanian became for the Philadelphia Inquirer, as he has In September and October, JOHN our new home this year,” writes for the past 30 years. He currently works ATCHLEY presented an exhibit of STEVEN SMITH. “My wife seems on the business desk and is their marijuana his photographs at the Hunt Library determined to farm as much of the (yes, it is big business) specialist. Sam in Falls Village, Connecticut. The exhibit, six-acre plot as she can and name every and I periodically cross paths with titled “Tales from the Golden Age and deer, groundhog, and baby fox she sees. KITSIE BURK MALENEY ’84, who Other Stories,” featured new works I am more focused on how to get WiFi also lives near Philadelphia, and, now that incorporating a gold-leaf printing technique to work through two-foot stone walls.” she is an empty-nester, devotes her time developed by John. After receiving a master’s to running a small farm and fundraising degree in photography at Yale in 1972, ’84 for a homeless shelter. And this past John pursued work in construction DANIEL MORRISON writes, “For the summer, I sat down in a Vermont for 35 years before picking up his past 14 years, I have been the pastor of coffee shop with KATIE KRAMER ’75 camera again in 2010 to focus on Huntingdon Valley Presbyterian Church to talk about her fascinating intellectual his love of nature. See his work at in suburban Philadelphia. I’m married memoir, Missing History: the Covert johnatchleyphotography.com. (Eva) and have a nine-year-old daughter Education of a Child of the Great Books” (Mia) still at home. Our two 20-somethings (see Potash Hill Summer 2011). ’80 (Rosie and Calvin) have long since flown the “Those who take on risk are not those/ coop. In addition to my vocational work, ’86 Who bear it. The sign said to profit/As I find time for avocational interests, most MARK FEINTHEL recently retired they do, trade around the one/Particular. of which involves digging in archives from the Virginia branch office of Let them credit what you hunt,/Let future and library stacks. In other Marlboro Bloomberg, where he was employed perform,” writes SOPHIE CABOT news, for the past two years I’ve been as a research analyst of labor data. “Binary Cluster,” by Erik Olson ‘94, one of the 115 images contributed by 26 alumni artists for a slideshow to honor retiring photography . Her poem “To burn through shacking up with BLACK SAM WOOD He presumably will return to his original professor John Willis. Lovingly compiled by Erik, the homage was presented to John at his retirement reception during Home Days. where you are not yet” was published in ’84. Sam and I lived together in West path as an artist. For the time being, he is Learn more at vimeo.com/364917160. the December 2 issue of The New Yorker. Philadelphia following my graduation simply enjoying having more time to be bit.ly/2RxnxJE from Marlboro, and fortune again smiled Hear Sophie read it at . with his family, and takes long walks came from the Alliance of Area Business rescue dog,” writes BETSY UNGER. become part of an artists’ collective called with his dog in the woods. He laments Publishers, in their annual Editorial “Serious illness finally took me out RAW: Natural Born Artists. I love being the pending closure of Marlboro, and Excellence awards. Learn more at of the English classroom after decades a fulltime artist, and my kiddo is the wishes all his former classmates well. bit.ly/2u4HE9P. of joy. Four years ago, it got greedier most amazing person I’ve ever met. In and took me from the wide world her I see that same independent, creative, ’89 ’92 altogether, leaving me primarily nonconformist free spirit that embodied the Congratulations to VAUNE In October, ALEX GARDNER gave a talk bed-bound but definitely unbowed. people and the place that were Marlboro TRACHTMAN and MARCUS and reading on campus from his book I still write poetry. I just had a piece when I was there.” DESIENO ’10 for being shortlisted The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, published in the Bellevue Literary for the Hariban Award, an international about a 19th-century Tibetan who Review’s fall issue.” ’96 competition presented by Benrido forever changed the face of Buddhism by “Mendel, Issac (now 4), and I moved Collotype Atelier. “I’m honored to be collecting, arranging, and disseminating ’93 to Issaquah, Washington, right outside in the company of so many incredible the traditions of Tibet across sectarian JENNIFER WATSON writes, “After of Seattle,” writes JANAN GUILLAUME. photographers from around the world!” lines. “One of my missions in the book years of good and bad jobs, life lessons, “I am with the same company, EagleView, says Vaune. was recovering Kongtrul’s humanity from and the devastating loss of my family’s but working now from our Bellevue all the legend and myth that has grown home in Hurricane Katrina, I finally office. I am falling in love with the ’91 up around him,” Alex says in an interview found my way to professional happiness Pacific Northwest.” In August, MAIA SEGURA was awarded on buddhistdoor.net. Learn more at and fulfillment. I now have my own small a silver award for her article in Vermont bit.ly/3amojkX. business as a jewelry artisan and children’s ’97 Business Magazine on treehouses, “tiny black-and-white photographer, and my “Hey all from Portland, Oregon,” Spencer Knickerbocker ’19 and Alex Quick ’19 both joined the admissions office as palaces in the sky, which offer the “I’m still living in East Montpelier, incredible transgender daughter and I writes RADHA ROGERS. “I had the admissions counselors in the fall. Alex has also pitched in with the communications adventurous traveler a promised-for Vermont, with my three goats, six travel the state doing arts and craft shows great pleasure of returning to Marlboro department, and Spencer has a joint assignment with the Outdoor Program, continuing to maintain and improve the Nordic ski trails. ‘something wild.’” The recognition chickens, aged yellow Lab, and beloved together. I was even invited recently to to visit last fall with several alumni

Spring 2020 | 38 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 39 | Potash Hill n ALUMNI NEWS n

to play baseball,” says Matthew. feminism, and anti-racist/anti-fascist

’02 The film had its theatrical premiere praxis. She has studied in the fields In January, KATE HOLLANDER at the Women Sports Film Festival of herbalism, visual/performance art, visited campus to read from her in San Francisco in September. anthropology, and political theory in first collection of poems, My German Learn more at hardballfilm.com. Germany, Mongolia, and the US. She is Dictionary, winner of the Anthony Hecht most excited right now about presenting Poetry Prize. She writes, “The book grows learning materials at the New Moon out of my experiences as a student, scholar, ’04 In November, ELIZABETH THEIS Mycology Summit, the prospect of filtering and teacher of Central European history presented a short film that she wrote the Schuylkill River of petrochemicals using and culture. It is a guide to an idiosyncratic and directed as part of the fifth annual mycelial filtration, a mobile herbal free interior country, a map of the experience of Ax Wound Film Festival in Brattleboro, clinic, working on decolonizing school absorbing and being absorbed by German the official film festival of Women in curriculums, and establishing abortion Levi Gershkowitz ’11: language, culture, aesthetics, and history, a Horror month. The film, Lizzie Boredom, doula programs throughout her city. catalogue of small beloved things inflected Patient Advocacy is about a reclusive sociopath who has by massive horrors.” through Storytelling convinced herself she’s a television ’10 star following a traumatic childhood. In December, ANDRÉ PEREZ was “I’ve been inspired by a love for travel and ’03 The festival also included a filmmaker on campus as an outside examiner life’s diversity—encountering cultural views MATTHEW TEMPLE released his new In October, Jack Rossiter-Munley ’12 and Molly Booth ’14 hosted an informal talk and Q&A hosted by ANNIE ROSE and presented the documentary series and expressions that I wouldn’t otherwise discussion in Whittemore Theater based on their Shakespeare podcast, Party Bard. movie, Hardball: The Girls of Summer, in MALAMET ’12. America in Transition, which he directed know,” says Levi Gershkowitz. Levi is founder They were joined by T. Wilson, faculty emeritus and the inspiration for both of these September. The film follows five women and CEO of Living in the Light, which uses Shakespeare uber-nerds, who read from his poetry. Photo by Clement Goodman ’22 and produced. The series explores of the US Women’s National Baseball photography, video, and personal narratives to ’09 relationships, community, and social document the effects of rare genetic diseases on Team as they battle for recognition and LILY SAGE is a permaculturalist, issues with trans people of color. families and individuals. “I was led to patient friends. It was so great to see old friends Dakota School of Mines and Technology. a gold medal in the Women’s Baseball doula, and Montessori pedagogue/nature America advocacy through working with refugees,” and visit the school. My husband, Carlos, SD Mines is a pure STEM school, World Cup. “It has been a true honor Killer Movie Reviews says, “ connection mentor who is interested he says. and I bought our first house. It’s been making it an interesting comparison to be able to tell the story of these in Transition depicts the harsh realities in questions of symbiosis, intersectional a few very exciting years. After 10 years to a Marlboro educational experience.” amazing women and their fight of living in a transphobic society, Levi completed his bachelor’s in Holocaust as the middle school Spanish, cooking, but it refuses to surrender to despair.” and genocide studies at Keene State College, health, and garden teacher at Portland Learn more at americaintransition.org. including a personal journey to face the dark TAMARA RAUSA-DONATELLI history of Poland and Ukraine. He also worked Jewish Academy, I’m beginning a new visited campus in February with her as a Thai massage and reflexology practitioner, job next month as the culinary arts family. She writes, “I am originally “The Green New Deal (GND) giving him hands-on experience working with teacher at the Durham Education from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and I chose exemplifies how democratic socialists people’s bodies. Both experiences taught him Center, an alternative high school.” Marlboro because I thought it would can envision future commitments to a lot about healing, and contributed to his be an experience unlike anything else establishing Living in the Light. economic justice,” writes KENTON ’98 in my life. I was right. Academically CARD in an August paper in Jacobin “I saw the need for collective healing for groups In October, coffee entrepreneur and personally, I carry those experiences titled “Bernie Should Declare Housing of people, and the strength and healing that DAGMAWI IYASU was on campus with me every day. Recently, I had a a Human Right.” He said, “The GND can come from witness and solidarity.” Since to make a presentation titled “Ethiopians: serendipitous encounter with another does not make the important connection its founding in 2012, Living in the Light has The Coffee People.” Dagmawi discussed Marlboro graduate. I am an ER physician featured the experiences of more than 400 between the climate crisis and where the role of culture and technology in Pennsylvania, and I was transferring families and individuals living with over 60 rare and how we build our homes.” conditions—from lysosomal storage diseases to in human resource and sustainable a patient to a hospital in Philadelphia in Learn more at bit.ly/2uaai9o. degenerative brain conditions—empowering development, and of course coffee, the middle of the night. The physician these people to be seen as people, not patients, followed by Q&A over a cup of I was transferring the patient’s care was and to be heard in their strength advocating awesome coffee. See the whole thing STEPHEN “VLAD” HUNT. We were ’11 for their needs. at youtu.be/lXVJ8HPkjiw. friends for years at Marlboro, worked ALICE PACKARD writes, “I have

as RAs together, only to be reunited recently relocated to Los Angeles after “The education we were offered at Marlboro three years working in the Chicago film was interdisciplinary, dynamic, and original, ’99 10 years later, seemingly randomly, in community. I took advantage of the and I’d say all those same qualities exist at HEIDI WAGNER writes, “This fall the care of others. Pretty amazing. I Living in the Light,” says Levi. “But what I began a new position as the program definitely took a bite off the apple from trip out west and did a 15-day road trip I love most about the work we are bringing coordinator for the online construction the Marlboro apple tree and am forever where I saw a handful of Marlboro alums to the world is the people: abandoning engineering and management MS enamored with the college, the campus, along the way, including GREGORY fear in exchange for authentic and Brian Mooney ’90 warms up before running in the New England Green River Marathon and the people. MEYERS ’08, SAM LOWENTHAL love-filled connection.” degree in the Department of Civil and in August, encouraged by his local cheering squad, featuring Vaune Trachtman ’89 (right). Environmental Engineering at South Andrew Clarke ’84 also participated in the run, which went from Marlboro College along ’09, SETH SEMPERE ’09, ALEXIA Learn more at frompatienttoperson.com. the Green River to Greenfield.

Spring 2020 | 40 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 41 | Potash Hill singing and cycling camp in Ecuador in International Encyclopedia of Anthropology June 2020. Marcea was Clayton’s leader (Beyond Texts volume), edited by Hilary during the 2011 Ecuador Semester with Callan, and published by John Wiley & Kroka Expeditions, a “transformative Sons. Learn more at marlboro.edu/live/ experience” for Clayton that influenced files/261-threads. his decision to pursue holistic education at Marlboro. “This collaboration is a JIM TOBER, economics faculty dream come true,” says Clayton. “It emeritus, led an August walk around is incredible to be working alongside campus titled “Potash Hill—The Years Marcea eight years after I was her student, before Marlboro College,” on behalf and it was especially exciting to realize of the Marlboro Historical Society. Desmond Peeples ’13: that we shared a Marlboro education.” A group of 25 or so participants joined Community in Learn more at marlboro.edu/clemetson. the walk, and compared historic photos Sarah Pidgeon MBA ’18: Rural America of the land and buildings with their Making Green Energy Former Faculty current appearance. They also walked “Writing is everything to me,” says to the site of a former sugar house, and Accessible Desmond Peeples, who completed their MFA in writing at Vermont College of STAN CHARKEY, music faculty speculated on the location of the original For her Capstone project, Sarah Pidgeon Fine Arts in January. “Good writing is good emeritus, premiered a new work at the potashery, where potash was produced. worked with a nonprofit environmental thinking. Good thinking becomes thoughtful Brattleboro Music Center in September, organization called Solar One to support action. Thoughtful action becomes a graceful education on climate change in the New titled “J/J,” for cello and string orchestra, In August, former president ELLEN life. That is what I love about writing—that York school system. Since graduating, written for his son and resident artist was appointed when I stray from writing, I stray from MCCULLOCH-LOVELL she has been promoted to co-director the path, and when I return, it all returns Jacob Charkey. “I wanted to write a piece interim executive director of Vermont of programs at Solar One, providing green Alice Packard ’11 visits with Seth Sempere ’09 during her road trip west. with me.” for Jake that connects to his experiences Studio Center (VSC), the renowned workforce training for adults and K-12 in both the Western and Indian traditions,” international artists’ and writers’ residency education centered around renewable ’13, ’13, Lindsay Lerman’s debut novel, I’m From energy and climate change. Desmond is the founder of Mount Island, BOGGS SEAN PYLES said Stan. “It’s called ‘J/J’ for Jake and program in Johnson, Vermont. In her and JOELLA SIMONS ADKINS ’12. Nowhere, and also host of the Get Lit with the Brattleboro-based small press and literary Juno,” he said, referring to the Juno role, part of an initiative to reshape VSC “Solar One is an incredible organization Leza podcast where she “talks to cool ass magazine dedicated to creating space for the It was really a great transition to my Orchestra, which accompanied Jacob for the future, she will manage and assess to work for,” says Sarah. “With the recent voices of rural LGBTQ+ and people of color somewhat daunting adventure to writers.” She is author of Trash Panda, a in the premier. operations while working with the board passing of the Climate Mobilization Act in to be heard on their own terms, and to finding see so many friendly faces on my way.” collection of poetry, and Cartoons in the of trustees to identify and hire a permanent New York City, it is crucial that we make solidarity in community. It is intended for Suicide Forest, a collection of short fiction, CAROL HENDRICKSON, anthropology executive director. sure that renewable energy is accessible, anybody who wants to see rural America and that all New Yorkers have access to and the editor of Tragedy Queens: Stories faculty emerita, published an entry in the for what it really is, in all its diversity. ’14 high-paying jobs in the clean energy sector.” Inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath. After working in admissions at Marlboro In January, JIM TOBER and CAROL “It matters that we be together,” says since 2015, KARA HAMILTON HENDRICKSON had a two-person Solar One’s workforce program collaborates Desmond. “That we’ve shared the same accepted a position at Youth Services ’19 art exhibit at the Crowell Gallery of the with organizations that support individuals solitary path through the woods, the same in Brattleboro, where she serves as a HENRY ROBINSON had two ceramic Moore Library in Newfane. Jim suggested who are unemployed, underemployed, or who have been impacted by the justice pang of loneliness cut short by the gasp of case manager for homeless and at-risk sculptures from his senior Plan show calling it “What Social Scientists Do beauty—crystal stream, bluebird, the green system, offering them hard-skills training youth as well as managing the agency’s selected by Sunshine Cobb for the after They Retire,” but they settled on and gold canopy, life. That we can gather in green construction and solar installation. Clay Festival 2019 International Juried together as who we are, unbothered, and Transitional Living Program. “I am “Bricolage.” It included many of Jim’s The organization’s K-12 education program that we welcome others to raise their spirits grateful to have experienced Marlboro Exhibition, titled Current. Both works collages and some of Carol’s journals provides career-focused, hands-on programming in affinity—that matters.” as both a student and a staff member. sold on opening night into private and artist’s books, several of which grew for high school students and professional It was an honor to serve alongside so collections. He also had another sculpture out of her artist’s residency at Everglades development training for teachers to Although Desmond’s own work ranges incorporate climate change and renewable many dedicated staff members whose selected for the Annual Rhode Island National Park. from nonfiction to poetry, their current energy into their classroom curriculum. Open Exhibition in his new hometown focus is in fabulist fiction. They are also work often goes unobserved.” the communications director for the of Warwick, Rhode Island, and was In September, former theater professor “My experience at Marlboro has really Brattleboro Words Project, a community In October, writer and editor LEZA chosen as a ceramics resident for a GEOFFRY BROWN launched supported me as I have grown in my role storytelling project backed by the National CANTORAL was on campus for micro-residency program at the Steel a website to make his full series of at Solar One,” says Sarah. “The tight-knit community and focus on collaboration Endowment for the Humanities and local a reading and conversation with philosopher Yard, Providence, Rhode Island. 120 dramatic monologues, titled partners including Marlboro College. and systems really made an impact on Lindsay Lerman and philosophy fellow “Quintessential Americans,” available Desmond credits the rigorous research, how I approach my work and my life. CLAYTON CLEMETSON and clear writing, and dearness of community Casey Ford titled “From Somewhere free of charge for download and I feel incredibly grateful for my experience to Nowhere.” Leza is editor-in-chief of MARCEA MACINNIS ’05 are use by history and drama students. at Marlboro and for all of my friends experienced at Marlboro with helping Alek Jaunzemis ’13 sports a Howland collaborating to create a three-week and the phenomenal faculty.” them in all of these endeavors. Clash Books, which recently published commemorative sweatshirt at Home Days. Learn more at marlboro.edu/geoffry.

Learn more at mountisland.com. Learn more at solar1.org.

Spring 2020 | 42 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 43 | Potash Hill IN MEMORIAM

“I didn’t go outside often. Instead, I wrote, trying to contain the were on the verge of collapse. I remember during hunger for living, for real life, that literature stoked in me. I prowled this time I came to class two minutes late, and Paul Book the stairs to the top floor and back, hoping to ease this craving, chided me, “Molly. Better late than never.” to find inspiration without straying too far from my computer.” SHELF —Deni Béchard, My Favorite Crime So yes, Paul’s expectations soared through the roof, into the sky, possibly landing somewhere on the moon, My Favorite Crime (Talonbooks, The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great possibly somewhere farther. He expected us to turn in 2019), by Deni Béchard ’97, is a (Shambhala, 2019), by Alex Gardner work, to thoughtfully critique each other, to reach higher collection of essays that are at once ’92, is a historical biography of the and higher even as we felt like sinking into the mud and personal and political. The first 19th-century Tibetan teacher who section describes Deni’s tumultuous forever changed the face of Buddhism. letting the Marlboro campus absorb us. relationship with his father (Potash Known as the “king of renunciates,” Hill Winter 2013), while the second Jamgon Kongtrul collected and But Paul didn’t just expect you to work hard. Paul is long-form journalism, on topics disseminated the lineage traditions expected you to enjoy it. To Paul, research was as ranging from children accused of of Tibet at a time when the region thrilling as catching wave after wave. If we crashed, sorcery and exorcised in Kinshasa experienced extreme sectarian and we were to immediately process the experience as useful to female vigilantes responding to political divides, and his collections rape culture in India. This is followed continue to be taught and transmitted and therefore delightful. Get back on that surfboard. by a collection of dispatches from Afghanistan and a number throughout the Himalayas. Alex provides an accessible and intimate Catch a bigger wave. Enjoy the next crash, and the next. of other countries. The final section includes essays on writing, glimpse into the life of this important Tibetan Buddhist teacher. especially the importance of political writing. This was not my default setting. Given the option, Lines of Sight (Dorrance, 2018) Catch a Wave: Remembering Paul Nelsen I chose binge-watching TV over homework, most of the Code Name Madeleine: A Sufi Spy in is a debut poetry collection from By Molly Horton Booth ’14 time. My research and writing often felt torturous and Nazi-Occupied Paris (W.W. Norton, James Pavlakis ’58. In poems ranging 2020), by Arthur Magida ’67, is the from witty to philosophical, personal terrifying. But every week, when each of us Plan students story of Noor Inayat Khan, a poet, to universal, rhymed and free verse “. . . ‘Time and tide wait for no man’ nor woman neither so recounted our progress, Paul listened as if we had discovered musician, author, and undercover to experimental, James observes or get your surf boards out folks and catch those waves forward.” a new path to buried treasure. He’d lean forward, his agent who invigorated the French comments on the human condition eyes would light up, and he would smile so big his Resistance. After outlasting most with clarity and strength. Accessible, Beloved Marlboro theater professor Paul Nelsen passed cheeks might burst. Truly, I can’t picture Paul without other radio operators, Noor tried thought-provoking, Lines of Sight imagining him like this. Paul’s presence transformed our to escape twice from a Nazi prison explores big topics while neither away August 2019. I was lucky enough to be one of his in Paris. Sent to Germany, she was erecting barriers to comprehension last Plan students before his retirement, and I miss him frustrating processes, and we remembered how exciting shackled in solitary, then executed at nor dumbing it down. Kirkus Review so much. I miss his genius. I miss his sharp and kind wit. each and every moment of being a Plan student was. Dachau. Code Name Madeleine brings says, “Alternating between traditional verse, heaped lines, and I miss his eyes lighting up with excitement. to life this young mystic who wrote, “The heart must be broken in poetic structures…the author’s poems have a dynamism that’s In Shakespeare’s time, humanity believed that our The New Sentence ” order for the real to come forth.” similar to that of poet Ron Silliman’s . Every other draft of this piece, to remember Paul, universe expanded and overlapped in crystal spheres

that contained the stars, sun, moon, planets. The movement My German Dictionary (Waywiser Complex Ecology (Cambridge I’ve begun with quotes from various Shakespeare plays. Press, 2019) is the first book of poems University Press, 2018), edited Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Winter’s Tale. But I’ve been of these spheres created beautiful music—the sound of from Kate Hollander ’02 and winner by Charles Curtin ’86 (see page 8) re-reading emails from Paul, and I stumbled onto one he the universe and creation in harmony. Paul’s song is such of the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. and Timothy Allen, presents key sent out to a group of his Plan students in mid-February a sound, and when I feel writing and art and research the Complementing Kate’s work as a research papers responding to new of 2013, excerpted above. way I should, with joyous rapture, I can still hear it. historian, these poems are home to environmental challenges that and haunted by the Great War, Bertolt defy quantifiable solutions. From Molly Horton Booth did her Plan of Concentration in Brecht, Rosa Luxemburg, enchanted climate change to species extinction, This email was incredibly cheery and encouraging. bears, Weimar Berlin, and vanished complexity-based ecology provides Almost maddeningly so. Though we were in the thick writing and fiction, including writing a young adult relatives, along with an entire alphabet a new paradigm for ecologists and of it, Paul assured us we were “bright, capable, and had novel about time-traveling to the original production of of mishearings, mnemonics, and conservationists keen to embrace the vision.” Though Plan had kicked in full force and every Hamlet at the Globe playhouse, a place she traveled to with valentines for the German language. uncertainty that is pressed upon us. day seemed like a theatrical nightmare, Paul insisted we Paul when she was on Plan. She has now published two YA “A book of startling, radiant images that ferry the poems to their The papers are set alongside first-person commentary from many all continue to meet together once a week to check in. novels with Disney Hyperion, and is a freelance writer and destinations of discovery and illumination,” writes former Poet of the seminal voices involved, and show how the shifting of wider editor. Find a full obituary for Paul at marlboro.edu/paul. Laureate Charles Wright. perspectives allows new ideas to take hold. He expected us to hold ourselves upright even when we

Spring 2020 | 44 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 45 | Potash Hill William Horridge ’51 Karen Stein Hall ’66 A Marlboro pioneer and longtime supporter of the college, We regret to report that we only recently learned that Bill Horridge died in July 2019. Born in New Jersey, Bill Karen Hall passed away in July 2008, at the age of 65. attended local schools and graduated from the Peddie School As of 2003, Karen reported in Class Notes having two in Heightstown, New Jersey. He attended University of beautiful granddaughters and surviving breast cancer. Pennsylvania before joining the Army Counter-Intelligence Karen grew up in Schenectady and attended Linton High Corps, and was deployed to the Philippines. He graduated School there before coming to Marlboro, where her Plan from Marlboro College where he developed a love for was in art history, focusing on the “protest painters” of Vermont, designed a beautiful class ring, and collaborated American art in the mid-twentieth century. She married with other students to design the original woodcut Marlboro Terry Hall ’65, but they later divorced. Karen is fondly seal. Bill spent 27 years as chief of security at Picatinny remembered by several people who grew up in Marlboro, Arsenal, then retired to become the resident broom maker having been a substitute teacher at the town elementary and wood carver at Waterloo Village as well as stocking school. She went on to work in Schenectady as a casework trout for the state of New Jersey. Later, Vermont beckoned, supervisor at the New York State Office of Child and Family and he purchased, renovated, and restored the Eagle Tavern in Services, which she described as working in “family court, East Poultney to be an innkeeper. He carved duck decoys and police court, drug court, domestic violence court, the school became a skilled cabinet maker. Bill’s great pleasures were sailing, system, horrible neighborhoods, elegant neighborhoods, skiing, camping, traveling, and sports cars. He is survived by his and a truly awful system.” wife of 67 years, Gertrude, a son, and two grandsons. Catharine Kurth ’86 Gretchen Hebb Bean ’57 A resident of West Hartford, Connecticut, Catherine Where the Meanings Are, oil on canvas, 2016, by Emily Mason. Courtesy of Emily’s family A longtime resident of Scituate, Massachusetts, Kurth died in August 2019 at the age of 56. Kate was Gretchen Hebb Bean died in June 2019. Born and born in Summit, New Jersey, and went to Hartford Daan Zwick, friend Emily Mason, friend raised in Brattleboro, Vermont, Gretchen graduated College for Women and Marlboro College, where she from Brattleboro High School. Even though she found studied Irish history and literature. After college, Kate Brother of former faculty member Huddee Herrick and Renowned painter, honorary alumna, and longtime college math and science classes challenging, she chose to study moved to San Francisco, California, and worked for a longtime supporter of Marlboro College (see page 48), supporter Emily Mason died in December at her hillside biology at Marlboro College. “Her love of science really Phoebus, a theatrical-lighting design company. She later Daan Zwick of Rochester, New York, died in November farm in Brattleboro, at the age of 87. Born in New York City, took hold during her time at Marlboro, and I remember her returned to Connecticut to be closer to family, and for 2019 at 97. Born in Burlington and a graduate of University Emily graduated from New York’s High School of Music & telling me about a professor of hers who really pushed her several years was a partner at Athena Trading Company, of Vermont, Daan retired from a long career at Kodak, where Art and then studied at Bennington College before graduating to achieve and believe in herself,” says Gretchen’s daughter a home textiles design and manufacturing firm. Kate he was a research scientist exploring image structure in color from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Lucy Bean Jenkins. She went on to earn her master’s degree brought her artistic talent to many endeavors, and was photography and the interface between motion picture film Art. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to study painting in physiology at the University of Vermont, and finally her a lover of literature, art, and design. She lived for travel, and color television. He and his wife, Janis Dowd, who in Venice, where she married artist Wolf Kahn, her husband PhD in biochemistry at Boston University at the age of 46. and had many adventures over the years both home predeceased him, were committed philanthropists and volunteers, of 62 years. She had her first solo exhibition at New York’s She worked for many years in clinical and research labs, and and abroad, with some of her favorite memories from active in Rochester Democratic politics and volunteering at Area Gallery in 1960 and exhibited her work regularly later in life she founded Commonwealth Laboratories, where coastal Maine. Kate had the sharpest of minds, and the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter. An avid thereafter, in New York and elsewhere. She also taught she worked until poor health forced her retirement at the age she loved to match wits, challenge with trivia, and outdoorsman, Daan was a Green Mountain Club caretaker painting at Hunter College for more than 30 years. Her of 72. She volunteered as a Scituate Board of Health member complete the New York Times Sunday crossword in the 1930s, an active volunteer into the 1980s, and a generous paintings are included in the collections of the Cleveland for several years. She was the beloved wife of the late Richard (in ink). She had a deeply generous spirit, and her supporter of the club. His deep commitment to the Long Museum of Art, National Academy Museum, and Bennington A. Bean, with whom she shared 56 years of marriage. She is family will always miss her keen intelligence, Trail motivated him to financially support some of the Museum, among others. In May 2019 Emily and Wolf survived by her two children, her sisters Susan Hebb ’58 and her wonderful laugh, and her loving heart. club’s most significant projects, including the trail relocation received honorary degrees from Marlboro for their long Karen Hebb Piccolo ’68, who also attended Marlboro, nine Kate is survived by her cousins and their families. through the Winooski River Valley and construction of the and generous support. In addition to Wolf, Emily is survived grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. Her family Winooski River suspension bridge. He is survived by four by two daughters and their families. asked that donations be made to Marlboro College in her children, and six granddaughters and step-granddaughters, as well as his first wife, Laura Zwick. memory in lieu of flowers. While this issue of Potash Hill was in production, we were saddened to learn of the death of Richard Liversage ’51 (see Potash Hill Spring 2017, page 38). We will plan on a full obituary in the next issue.

Spring 2020 | 46 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents Spring 2020 | 47 | Potash Hill n MAGNANIMITY CUM LAUDE n

TRAIL-BLAZING PHILANTHROPY “I guess I tend to support the little guys— the ones that do not get the big bucks,” said Marlboro admirer and donor Daan Zwick. In 1996 Daan, a research scientist at Eastman Kodak Company, gave a landmark gift to Marlboro, pledging $150,000 per year for three years plus a charitable remainder trust in the amount of $550,000, the first gift of $1 million in Marlboro’s history. With Daan’s passing in November 2019 (see page 47), his forward-thinking generosity became part of Marlboro’s legacy.

“I have admired the college, its goals and practices, ever since I first visited there in the 1950s,” said Daan, whose sister Huddee Herrick taught writing at Marlboro in the 1960s and 70s, and died in 1996. Huddee is remembered for hosting lively writing classes in her South Road house, crowded with her own colorful paintings, and serving dinner over poetry. Daan added, “I like the independence, the responsibility, the Plan, and the community that I see and feel at Marlboro.”

An avid outdoorsman, Daan was a Boy Scout leader, a member of the National Ski Patrol, and a volunteer summit caretaker on Mount Mansfield for the Green Mountain Club. He helped care for the Long Trail and its shelters for decades, through his volunteering and philanthropy, starting with being the first caretaker for the Taylor Lodge, in Nebraska Notch, at the age of 15. In a memoir of that summer, published in Long Trail News, Daan describes Huddee visiting What Does on Labor Day weekend and being scalded by an exploding can of beans. TRANSITION “My sister Huddee and her girlfriend hiked in to spend a relaxing weekend with me. As we sat quietly on a bunk talking, while waiting MEAN TO YOU for the lunch crowd around the stove to thin out, there was a loud explosion, the oven blew apart, and Huddee started screaming…. ? More excitement in that 15 minutes than I had had all summer. Through this time of great change at Marlboro, we are working hard to take care of our campus I know Huddee didn’t appreciate it, but there was nothing like community. Please help support our 150 students, longtime faculty, and cherished staff. finishing up one’s first caretaking season with a bang.” The Student Transition Fund: supporting students directly by defraying costs related to making The sense of responsibility gained by Daan on that first summer at the move to the Marlboro Institute at Emerson College. Taylor Lodge stood him in good stead over the years, and he was a committed philanthropist his whole life, giving generously to the Green The Faculty-Staff Transition Fund: for faculty and staff costs associated with the proposed Emerson Mountain Club, United Way, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, alliance, from moving expenses to severance packages. Eastman School of Music, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Marlboro is so grateful that Daan’s generosity extended to the college Support the campus community—right here, right now. Any gifts go directly to the people who and will continue to support it during this challenging transition make Marlboro the special place that it is. Use the remittance envelope in this issue of Potash Hill period ahead. or go to marlboro.edu/give.

Photo by Kelly Fletcher Spring 2020 | 48 | Potash Hill Return to Table of Contents Return to Table of Contents P.O. Box A Marlboro, Vermont 05344 Change Service Requested

Lily Fullwood ’22 embodied a familiar saying about life and lemons at Halloween last October. Students have found much to make the most of in this final year on Potash Hill. Learn more on page 7.

Photo by Emily Weatherill ‘21

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